ECB exchange rates download to Google sheets

Euro foreign exchange reference rates, or as also known as the official ECB fx rates, published by the European central bank. These are the official benchmark rates that are used to perform various calculations related to real and financial transactions and also for accounting purposes.

Since the ECB rates of exchange are so commonly used, there is a need to download historical exchange rates to excel or to Google Sheets to support the automation process. While ECB exchange rates API is available for free, the use of it required coding knowledge that is not in the possession of the average user.

ECB exchange rates historical data is available, in the central bank website, for a manual download, for any time frame and currency pairs. Yet when the average user is looking for “ECB exchange rates USD” or “ECB exchange rates euro” he (she) usually looking for the official rate for a certain date. This information is also available, but for some reason, it currently only available (as of this writing) to download to PDF. The option to download to Excel exists of course but requires some additional effort from the user.

Google Sheets IMPORTDATA - ECB euro foreign exchange rates 

This post will be about extracting free historical exchange rates information on historical exchange rates by using Google Sheets IMPORTDATA function. Although Google Sheets has a function called GOOGLE FINANCE which allows you to get exchange rates for almost any period and currency pairs, these rates are not official rates like those of the ECB.

The following tutorial video explains how to use the import data function and import the exchange rates of the euro against other currencies, for the last 90 days.

The import is made from a URL provided by the ECB.

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-hist-90d.xml

The raw information obtained is messy, and the technical challenge is to organize it into a readable and dynamic format. Once the information organization process, as described in the video, is complete, the information can be used to automate processes and calculations.

You can follow the video and do it yourself, or purchase the model at a symbolic cost of 5 euros, which helps us further disseminate knowledge about currency risk management.

After payment, you will receive an email with a link to the model. All you have to do is copy it to your Google Drive (File -> make a copy).  The link will be sent after a few hours, and not more than 24 hours after payment. 

Tutorial video: Import ECB exchange rates to Google sheets