About
What this site is
Treasury Rate Watch tracks what the United States government pays to borrow — and what it reports its foreign-currency balances to be worth — using only the Treasury's own published figures.
Where the numbers come from
Every figure on this site is pulled directly from the U.S. Treasury. Nothing is estimated, modelled, or adjusted. Five sources are used — four from the Fiscal Data API, plus the Treasury's own daily rate publication:
- Daily Treasury rates — every business day: bill rates from 4 to 52 weeks, the par yield curve from 1 month to 30 years, and TIPS real yields
- Average interest rates on Treasury securities — monthly, by security type
- Interest expense on the public debt — monthly
- Debt to the penny — every business day
- Reporting rates of exchange — quarterly, 167 currencies
The first is a market rate: what a Treasury security yields today. The next three describe what the government already owes and already pays. Keeping both on one site is the point — the gap between today's yields and the average rate on debt issued years ago is what determines where federal interest costs are heading.
These are works of the U.S. federal government and are in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. §105. The same data is offered back as CSV downloads so it can be used elsewhere without scraping these pages.
How it stays current
The site rebuilds itself on a schedule. A job fetches every source from the Treasury, regenerates all 66 pages, and publishes — without anyone touching it. It runs after the close of each business day, so the daily rate pages and the national debt stay current; the monthly series advance whenever the Treasury releases them. The date in each page header reflects the newest figure that page holds.
What it deliberately does not do
This site reports numbers and describes what they mean. It does not forecast rates, recommend securities, or tell anyone what to do with money. Where a figure is easy to misread — the reporting rates of exchange are a standing example, since they are accounting rates rather than market rates — the page says so plainly rather than leaving the reader to find out later.
Who runs it
Treasury Rate Watch is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the U.S. Department of the Treasury or any other government body. Corrections and questions are welcome — see the contact page.