Class of series
Each series in Macrobond has a class metadata which affects how they behave when they are transformed to higher or lower frequency. You can check the class of series under Time series information:
Class is a metadata which informs main app how to treat series when using Frequency conversion. Under Conversion settings' Automatic option you can see that series have assigned different methods:
What Stock, Flow and Step mean?
| CLASS | Description | Result of changing to higher frequency (i.e., Annual -> Monthly) | Result of changing to lower frequency (i.e., Monthly -> Annual) | Used currency conversion method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stock | Series is measured at one specific time, and represents a quantity existing at that certain point in time (i.e., December 31, 2004), which may have accumulated in the past.
Examples: Indices and Percent series; continuous-series, i.e., unemployment, savings, house loan, central bank’s balance sheet, GDP series with AR or Chained. |
Using same value for all points in time in selected period. | Using last value in selected period. | Last 5d median. |
| Flow | Series is measured over an interval of time. Therefore a flow would be measured per unit of time (i.e., a year). Flow is roughly analogous to rate or speed in this sense.
Examples: Countable series; i.e., GDP, salary, interest rate payments. |
Distributing annual value over 12 months. | Aggregating / summing up monthly values to a year. | Last value. |
| Step | Series is measured in steps, and is static most of the time.
Examples: Policy rates, mortgage lending rates, prime rates. |
Using same value for all points in time in selected period. | Using last value in selected period. | Average value. |
Can I choose class of series?
Our regular series' metadata are managed by our team. This cannot be changed by user. When you create your own in-house series on you will see 'Class' field where you can select Flow, Step, Stock or Not specified.
Can I change class of series?
In analyses this is possible only in Seasonal Adjustment X-13 analysis. Note this doesn't mean it will be calculated as such because model behind this analysis has its limitations.
Changing from Flow to Stock (how to decumulate series?)
You can change series from Flow to Stock with one of these formulas:
if(Counter()=StartOfYear(), series, momentum(series, 1)) if(Month()=1, series, momentum(series, 1))
Annual Rate (AR)
Generally GDP-series have class Flow. Series with AR (Annual Rate) in description have Stock class because they are already accumulated - in order to compare both these types of series you need to divide AR-series by 4 (if series is quarterly), for example let's compare these:
canaac0554/4 Canada, Gross Domestic Product, Total, Constant Prices, SA, AR, Market Prices, CAD canaac0585 Canada, Gross Domestic Product, Total, Constant Prices, Market Prices, CAD
Prices
Current Price = Nominal price - series with this description are not adjusted for inflation.
Constant Price = Real price - series with this description are adjusted for inflation.
How to change Current to Constant? (inflation adjusted series)
Divide series by same country's CPI series. For example:
uscaes0301/(uscpi/LastValid(uscpi))
In Macrobond we have aliased frequently used series so you can easily construct codes as country_code+cpi. For more information about these abbreviations see List of countries & regions and Macrobond key series names.
How to change Constant to Current?
Multiply Constant Price GDP (Real) by GDP Deflator and divide by 100 to calculate Current Price GDP (Nominal). For example:
imfweo_cn_ngdp_r*imfweo_cn_ngdp_d/100
How to create chain linked series?
In Rebase analysis wse ‘Relative’ rebase method.