DTB3: 3-Month US Treasury Bill Secondary Market Rate Daily Data Since 1954

The DTB3 series, published daily by the Federal Reserve via FRED, tracks the 3-month US Treasury bill secondary market rate on a discount basis since January 1954 — over 18,000 daily observations. DTB3 is the closest market proxy for the theoretical risk-free rate and the de facto anchor of the entire US dollar yield curve, referenced in money market pricing, commercial paper, and short-term lending across global financial markets.

Dataset: US 3-Month Treasury Bill Rate (1954–2026) · Updated 2026-07-31

Source: FRED series DTB3 · Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns.

Column names match the CSV headers exactly.

Download the Complete Dataset

The full dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats.

FRED Direct CSV Access

The underlying data is available from FRED under series code DTB3:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=DTB3

Direct CSV Access — Eco3min Structured Dataset

https://eco3min.fr/dataset/us-3m-treasury-bill.csv

This URL returns the complete dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool.

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/us-3m-treasury-bill.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"])

print(df.head())
print(df["dtb3"].describe())

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/us-3m-treasury-bill.csv"
df <- read_csv(url)

head(df)
summary(df$dtb3)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL — no download or API key required.

Methodology

DTB3 reports the secondary market rate for 3-month Treasury bills on a discount basis. The discount basis convention means the published rate reflects the annualized percentage difference between the purchase price and the face value of the bill at maturity, computed using a 360-day year. This differs from the bond-equivalent yield (BEY) used for coupon-bearing Treasury notes — conversion to BEY adds a few basis points to the headline DTB3 figure.

The series dates back to January 1954, making it one of the longest continuous interest rate series available from FRED. It is compiled by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from secondary market dealer quotes and published as part of the H.15 release.

Eco3min mirrors FRED with an automated weekly Saturday pull at 08:00 UTC.

Data Quality & Provider Notes

DTB3 is one of the most reliable and longest-running interest rate series available, with consistent secondary market sourcing since 1954.

• Release latency. The Federal Reserve publishes DTB3 daily, typically around 16:00 ET on business days as part of the H.15 release. Eco3min mirrors FRED with a weekly Saturday pull.
• Revisions policy. Daily bill rates are not revised after initial publication. The discount-basis quotation has remained methodologically stable for the entire series history, making DTB3 unusually well-suited for multi-decade backtesting.
• Alternative sources. Bloomberg (USGG3M Index), Refinitiv/LSEG, and ICE Data Services provide the same underlying rate with intraday updates and licensed access. The US Treasury publishes auction results (TB3MS auction average) which differ from DTB3 secondary market quotes by a few basis points.
• Known gaps. Daily series excludes weekends and US federal holidays. No data exists prior to January 4, 1954. Note that the related DTB4WK (4-week T-bill) series only begins in 2001, so DTB3 is the most consistent proxy for short-end Treasury rates over the long historical sample.

For pre-1954 short-term US rate history, the GS3M (3-month constant maturity, monthly) and BAA10Y series provide longer but lower-frequency proxies.

Common Pitfalls When Using DTB3

DTB3 is widely used as a risk-free rate but several interpretation errors recur in applied analysis.

1. Confusing discount basis and bond-equivalent yield. DTB3 is quoted as a discount rate using a 360-day year, not as an investment yield. Converting to bond-equivalent yield (BEY) raises the headline figure by several basis points, particularly at higher rate levels. Mixing DTB3 with coupon-bearing yields without converting introduces a systematic bias.
2. Treating DTB3 and Fed Funds as identical. DTB3 typically tracks the effective Fed Funds rate closely but can deviate during periods of Treasury supply imbalance, money market stress (March 2020, September 2019 repo spike), or end-of-quarter window-dressing. Treating them as interchangeable misses these episodes of useful information.
3. Using DTB3 as a real risk-free rate. DTB3 is nominal. For real returns, subtract inflation expectations or use the inflation-indexed equivalent (real T-bill yields available via the TIPS curve). During 2021-2022, nominal DTB3 below 1% while CPI ran at 7-8% meant a deeply negative real return on bills.
4. Over-reading volatility during the zero-bound era. Between 2008 and 2015, DTB3 oscillated between 0.01% and 0.20%. Tiny absolute moves (a few basis points) translate to large percentage changes that do not reflect meaningful policy shifts. Period-to-period comparisons of DTB3 require absolute, not relative, thresholds.

Historical Regimes

1954–1970 — Stable low rates. DTB3 ranged from approximately 1% to 7%, gradually rising with the economy and inflation. The Bretton Woods gold standard anchor kept short-term rates relatively contained, with DTB3 generally tracking the slow upward drift in nominal GDP growth.

1970–1981 — Inflation spiral. DTB3 surged from 4% to above 16%, tracking the Fed’s increasingly aggressive response to inflation. The March 1980 peak of 17.1% remains the all-time high for the series. The Eco3min research Real Returns on 3-Month US Treasury Bills documents that even at these nominal highs, real returns remained modest because CPI was running at similar levels.

1981–2007 — Long descent. DTB3 fell from 16% to approximately 5%, with cyclical oscillations around the secular downtrend driven by declining inflation expectations. Each Fed easing cycle brought DTB3 to a lower trough. The relationship to the CPI inflation rate tightened as Fed credibility consolidated under Volcker and Greenspan.

2008–2015 — Zero-bound era. DTB3 collapsed to near 0% (as low as 0.01%) as the Fed held the Fed Funds rate at 0-0.25% for seven years. This was the longest sustained period of near-zero short-term rates in US history, with DTB3 sometimes briefly trading below zero during periods of T-bill scarcity.

2022–2024 — Rate normalization. DTB3 surged from 0.05% to above 5% in 18 months — the fastest tightening cycle since 1981. Over $6 trillion migrated into money market funds as the opportunity cost of cash collapsed. The path closely mirrored the 2-year Treasury yield, with DTB3 typically anchored near Fed Funds while the 2-year incorporated forward expectations.

2024–2026 — Easing path. DTB3 declined alongside Fed cuts, with each rate-cut decision producing immediate repricing in the 3-month bill. Comparing DTB3 with the 10Y–3M curve spread isolates the residual term premium during this period of policy normalization.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

DTB3 anchors the short end of the Treasury curve and serves as the closest market proxy to current Fed policy. Cross-reference with the following datasets to triangulate policy stance and curve shape.

Macroeconomic Dataset Hub

This dataset is part of the Eco3min macro-financial data repository.

Explore the Eco3min Dataset Hub

Sources

• Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System — H.15 Selected Interest Rates
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — FRED series DTB3
• US Department of the Treasury — T-bill auction results (TreasuryDirect)

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). US 3-Month Treasury Bill Rate — DTB3 Daily Secondary Market (1954–2026).<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/us-3-month-treasury-bill-dataset/