Gis: TRADING ECONOMICS | GIS API

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Trading Economics exposes its entire dataset as geospatial layers through the OGC API – Features standard. Every data point is delivered as a GeoJSON feature anchored to a country polygon or centroid, so you can load it directly into QGIS, ArcGIS Pro, or any OGC-compliant client — no conversion, no middleware. A single URL gives you live, queryable, styleable layers ready for choropleth mapping (see GDP Growth Map), labeling, or temporal animation alongside your existing spatial data.

Endpoints: Indicators | Markets | FRED | COMTRADE

Clients: QGIS | ArcGIS | Proxy

Gis: TRADING ECONOMICS | ArcGIS Pro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

ArcGIS Pro is Esri’s professional desktop GIS application for spatial analysis, cartography, and data management. It supports the OGC API – Features standard, which means you can connect directly to the Trading Economics Geospatial API and load economic indicators, market data, and trade flows as live map layers inside your ArcGIS projects.

Before you start: ArcGIS Pro 3.x with a valid license and the Authentication Proxy running at port 8080.

Adding Layers in ArcGIS Pro

Trading Economics serves GeoJSON through the OGC API – Features standard. ArcGIS Pro can consume this via an OGC API connection or by adding GeoJSON data directly from a URL.

Method 1 — OGC API – Features Connection (recommended)

This registers the Trading Economics service as a server connection, letting you browse all available collections from the Catalog pane.

In the Catalog pane, right-click Servers → New OGC API Server.
Set Server URL to: http://localhost:8080/gis
Click OK. The connection appears under Servers.
Expand the connection to see all available collections.
Right-click a collection → Add To Current Map.

Method 2 — Add Data from URL

Use this when you already know the specific endpoint and filters you need. You can append any query parameters from the Indicators, Markets, FRED, or COMTRADE endpoint pages directly in the URL.

On the Map tab, click Add Data → Data From Path.
Paste the full URL (e.g. http://localhost:8080/gis/collections/indicators/gdp/items?countries=China,Germany).
Click Add.

Styling

Once a Trading Economics layer is loaded, ArcGIS Pro renders it with a default single-symbol style. The sections below show how to create meaningful visualizations — colour-coding countries by indicator value (choropleth) or scaling trade-flow lines by volume.

Choropleth — Graduated Colors

A choropleth map shades each country or region according to its indicator value, making it easy to spot patterns at a glance — for example, which countries have the highest GDP or the steepest inflation.

Select the layer in the Contents pane.
On the Feature Layer contextual tab, click Symbology → Graduated Colors.
Set Field to the indicator (e.g. gdp_value, inflation_rate_value, bond_yield).
Choose a Color scheme (e.g. yellow-to-red for intensity).
Set Method to Natural Breaks (Jenks) and pick the number of classes.
Click Apply.

Trade Flow Line Width (data-driven)

Comtrade trade-flow layers are rendered as lines connecting exporter and importer countries. Scaling line width by trade value makes major trade corridors stand out immediately.

Open the Symbology pane for the line layer.
Choose Graduated Symbols or Proportional Symbols.
Set Field to trade_value.
Configure the minimum and maximum symbol sizes (e.g. 0.5 to 5 pt).
Click Apply.

Alternatively, use an Arcade expression on the line symbol’s width property for finer control:

// Scale trade_value to a line width between 0.5 and 5 pt
var minVal = 0;
var maxVal = 1000000000;
return 0.5 + 4.5 * (($feature.trade_value - minVal) / (maxVal - minVal));

Time Slider

Several Trading Economics endpoints support historical ranges via yearFrom and yearTo query parameters. When you load multi-year data, each feature carries a date field that ArcGIS Pro can use to animate changes over time — watch GDP shift across continents, track rising unemployment, or see trade flows evolve year by year.

# Example: population data across 10 years
http://localhost:8080/gis/collections/indicators/population/items?yearFrom=2015&yearTo=2025

Enable time on the layer:

Right-click the layer → Properties → Time.
Set Layer Time to Each feature has a single time field.
Set Time Field to date.
Set Time Extent — Start: 2015, End: 2025.
Click OK.

Animate:

The Time Slider appears automatically at the top of the map view.
Set Time Span to 1 Year.
Click Play to step through the data year by year.

Gis: TRADING ECONOMICS | GIS Authentication

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

To access the Trading Economics Geospatial API, you’ll need an API key. Subscribe to a plan at tradingeconomics.com/api/pricing.aspx and retrieve your key at developer.tradingeconomics.com. Since some GIS applications have limitations in how they pass API credentials, we recommend running a lightweight local proxy.

Caddy Proxy

Caddy is a free, open-source web server known for its simplicity — a single binary, no dependencies, and a minimal configuration file. For this use case it acts as a local reverse proxy, sitting between your GIS client and the Trading Economics API and forwarding your credentials automatically so you never have to configure authentication inside QGIS or ArcGIS.

Setup Caddy

1. Install

curl.exe https://webi.ms/caddy | powershell

brew install caddy

curl -sS https://webi.sh/caddy | sh

2. Run Caddy

Replace key:secret with your Trading Economics API credentials.

caddy reverse-proxy --from :8080 --to https://api.tradingeconomics.com --header-up "Authorization: key:secret"

Note

Do not point QGIS at https://api.tradingeconomics.com directly.
Always use http://localhost:8080 as the base URL in QGIS.

– Arcgis

Gis: TRADING ECONOMICS | GIS API

Gis: TRADING ECONOMICS | ArcGIS Pro

Adding Layers in ArcGIS Pro

Method 1 — OGC API – Features Connection (recommended)

Method 2 — Add Data from URL

Styling

Choropleth — Graduated Colors

Trade Flow Line Width (data-driven)

Time Slider

Gis: TRADING ECONOMICS | GIS Authentication

Caddy Proxy

Setup Caddy

1. Install

2. Run Caddy

Note