How to fetch the RBA cash rate in Python (without parsing CSVs)

If you have ever tried to programmatically get the current RBA cash rate, you know the drill. You open the RBA F1 statistical table, download f01hist.xls, write a pandas.read_excel call, fight with the multi-row header (Series ID on row 11, units on row 6), filter, sort, take the last row. That is 30 lines of code to get a single number that changes 11 times a year. One line (MIT, no key) from rba_mcp import client print ( client . latest ( " F1_1 " , series = " cash_rate_target " ). records [ - 1 ]. value ) # live AU.CASHRATE as of 2026-09-03: 4.35 pip install rba-mcp No key. MIT-licensed. Attribution and source URL come back with the number. Hosted gateway Use GET /v1/series/AU.CASHRATE/latest on api.ausdata.io with a free key from ausdata.io (500 calls/mo). Live 2026-09-06: cash 4.35 percent, trimmed-mean CPI 3.6 percent (2026-Q2), real rate 0.75 percent. Why the hosted path exists The RBA publishes the nominal cash rate. The ABS publishes inflation. Neither publishes the real cash rate (nominal minus trimmed-mean CPI). Use /v1/real-rate-regime for that join. Same envelope across nine AU sources: source, source_url, attribution, retrieved_at. MCP Wire ausdata-mcp via npx in Claude Desktop or Cursor. Sisters on PyPI run fully local with no key. What this is not Suburb-level property prices Live KYC / company-officer lookup 5-minute wholesale electricity bid stacks AU macro public data, one envelope, citations done for you. R users readrba by Matt Cowgill is the R equivalent. This is the Python / JS / agent path. Links Canonical: https://ausdata.io/blog/rba-cash-rate-python-api/ Free key: https://ausdata.io Series: https://ausdata.io/series/AU.CASHRATE PyPI: rba-mcp