Cash Rate is a static rebuild, not a live database. A Python script reads official spreadsheets and CSV files from data/raw/, computes a handful of summary statistics, and writes HTML, JSON and a sitemap. The same script can be run offline once the raw files are on disk.
Ingest
- New Zealand wholesale rates come from the Reserve Bank B2 workbooks. The Official Cash Rate is series INM.DP1.N. The 90-day bank bill is INM.DB03.N for 1985-2017 and INM.DB03.NZZV from 2018 in the current daily-close file.
- New Zealand retail rates come from B3: floating first-mortgage new-customer housing (INR.MBI06.F) and the six-month term deposit (INR.MBI05.T07).
- Australia’s cash rate target comes from RBA tables F1 (daily, FIRMMCRTD) and F1.1 (monthly, FIRMMCRT).
- The US effective federal funds rate comes from FRED: DFF (daily) and FEDFUNDS (monthly). The original source is the Federal Reserve system.
- Bank Rate comes from the Bank of England statistical database, series IUDBEDR.
What we do not do
We do not change a published value, fill a gap with an interpolation, seasonal-adjust a rate, or convert a target range into a homemade midpoint unless the official file already contains that series. We do not back-cast the OCR before March 1999. We do not replace a failed overseas download with a remembered number.
Statistics
Current is the last observation in the series used for the headline (daily where a daily official file exists). Change versus the previous observation is shown when that observation differs; for policy rates that are unchanged for weeks, the page also surfaces the last actual move. Mean is the arithmetic mean of the observations used for the long-run history. Median is the median of those same observations. Min and max are the extreme values with their dates. A long stay at one policy setting pulls the mean toward that setting, which is intended.
Charts and tables
Policy rates are drawn as steps. Long daily market series are drawn at month-end so the browser is not asked to plot twenty thousand points. Tables are reverse-chronological. Range buttons (1Y, 5Y, 10Y, Max) only filter what is drawn; they do not recompute the official history.
Cadence
Rebuild when a new official file appears. B2 wholesale files are typically updated on New Zealand business days. B3 is monthly. RBA F1 is daily. FRED and the Bank of England update on their own calendars. A public site, if and when it is launched, will lag those calendars by whatever time sits between their release and the next rebuild.
Ads
The advertisement boxes are empty labelled rectangles. They exist so the layout can be judged with a reservation for a future network. No ad script is loaded and no publisher id is present.