Get An Updated Currency Listing (Python)

Some work on it to dictionaries and changing the base currency by function updating the mutable dict. Also changed the rates to floats to be more usefull.

'''currency.py
open a currency rate URL for reading
tested with Python27 and Python32/33
based on vegaseat's code
'''

import pprint
try:
    # Python2
    from urllib2 import urlopen
except ImportError:
    # Python3
    from urllib.request import urlopen

def get_currencies():
    url = "http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/markets/csv/exchange_eng.csv"

    fp = urlopen(url)

    currencies = {b'Canadian dollar': 1.00}
    for ix, line in enumerate(fp):
        # remove trailing new line
        line = line.rstrip()
        if line.startswith(b'#'):
            continue
        if line.startswith(b"Date"):
            date = line.split(b",")[-1]
        #print(ix)  # test
        if ix == 7 or ix > 10:
            line_list = line.split(b",")
            currencies[bytes(line_list[0].strip())] = float(line_list[-1])
    return date, currencies

def base_currency(base, currencies):
    b = currencies[base]
    currencies.update(dict((currency, value/b) for currency,value in currencies.items()))

date, currencies = get_currencies()
print("year-month-day = %s" % date)
pprint.pprint(currencies)
base = b'U.S. dollar'
base_currency(base, currencies)

print('\nBased on %s' % base)
pprint.pprint(currencies)

""" Output:
year-month-day = b' 2012-10-09'
{b'Argentine peso': 0.2078,
 b'Australian dollar': 0.997,
 b'Bahamian dollar': 0.9788,
 b'Brazilian real': 0.4808,
 b'CFA franc (African Financial Community)': 0.001921,
 b'CFP franc (Pacific Financial Community)': 0.01056,
 b'Canadian dollar': 1.0,
 b'Chilean peso': 0.002061,
 b'Chinese renminbi': 0.1557,
 b'Colombian peso': 0.000544,
 b'Croatian kuna': 0.1689,
 b'Czech Republic koruna': 0.05038,
 b'Danish krone': 0.169,
 b'East Caribbean dollar': 0.368,
 b'European Euro': 1.2601,
 b'Fiji dollar': 0.5511,
 b'Ghanaian cedi': 0.5191,
 b'Guatemalan quetzal': 0.1224,
 b'Honduran lempira': 0.04971,
 b'Hong Kong dollar': 0.126259,
 b'Hungarian forint': 0.004445,
 b'Icelandic krona': 0.00796,
 b'Indian rupee': 0.01856,
 b'Indonesian rupiah': 0.000102,
 b'Israeli new shekel': 0.2528,
 b'Jamaican dollar': 0.01092,
 b'Japanese yen': 0.01251,
 b'Malaysian ringgit': 0.3188,
 b'Mexican peso': 0.07593,
 b'Moroccan dirham': 0.1136,
 b'Myanmar (Burma) kyat': 0.00114,
 b'Neth. Antilles florin': 0.5499,
 b'New Turkish lira': 0.5376,
 b'New Zealand dollar': 0.7994,
 b'Norwegian krone': 0.1706,
 b'Pakistan rupee': 0.01024,
 b'Panamanian balboa': 0.9788,
 b'Peruvian new sol': 0.3783,
 b'Philippine peso': 0.02361,
 b'Polish zloty': 0.3089,
 b'Romanian new leu': 0.2753,
 b'Russian rouble': 0.03135,
 b'Serbian dinar': 0.01099,
 b'Singapore dollar': 0.7956,
 b'South African rand': 0.1118,
 b'South Korean won': 0.000881,
 b'Sri Lanka rupee': 0.007628,
 b'Swedish krona': 0.1462,
 b'Swiss franc': 1.0412,
 b'Taiwanese new dollar': 0.03341,
 b'Thai baht': 0.0319,
 b'Trinidad and Tobago dollar': 0.1529,
 b'Tunisian dinar': 0.6215,
 b'U.A.E. dirham': 0.2665,
 b'U.K. pound sterling': 1.5647,
 b'U.S. dollar': 0.9788,
 b'Venezuelan bolivar fuerte': 0.2279,
 b'Vietnamese dong': 4.7e-05}

Based on b'U.S. dollar'
{b'Argentine peso': 0.21230077646097262,
 b'Australian dollar': 1.018594196975889,
 b'Bahamian dollar': 1.0,
 b'Brazilian real': 0.4912137310993053,
 b'CFA franc (African Financial Community)': 0.0019626072742133225,
 b'CFP franc (Pacific Financial Community)': 0.010788720882713527,
 b'Canadian dollar': 1.021659174499387,
 b'Chilean peso': 0.0021056395586432366,
 b'Chinese renminbi': 0.15907233346955457,
 b'Colombian peso': 0.0005557825909276665,
 b'Croatian kuna': 0.17255823457294645,
 b'Czech Republic koruna': 0.05147118921127912,
 b'Danish krone': 0.1726604004903964,
 b'East Caribbean dollar': 0.3759705762157744,
 b'European Euro': 1.2873927257866775,
 b'Fiji dollar': 0.5630363710666122,
 b'Ghanaian cedi': 0.5303432774826318,
 b'Guatemalan quetzal': 0.12505108295872497,
 b'Honduran lempira': 0.05078667756436452,
 b'Hong Kong dollar': 0.12899366571311813,
 b'Hungarian forint': 0.004541275030649775,
 b'Icelandic krona': 0.008132407029015121,
 b'Indian rupee': 0.01896199427870862,
 b'Indonesian rupiah': 0.00010420923579893747,
 b'Israeli new shekel': 0.25827543931344504,
 b'Jamaican dollar': 0.011156518185533305,
 b'Japanese yen': 0.012780956272987332,
 b'Malaysian ringgit': 0.3257049448304046,
 b'Mexican peso': 0.07757458111973846,
 b'Moroccan dirham': 0.11606048222313037,
 b'Myanmar (Burma) kyat': 0.001164691458929301,
 b'Neth. Antilles florin': 0.561810380057213,
 b'New Turkish lira': 0.5492439722108704,
 b'New Zealand dollar': 0.8167143440948099,
 b'Norwegian krone': 0.17429505516959543,
 b'Pakistan rupee': 0.010461789946873724,
 b'Panamanian balboa': 1.0,
 b'Peruvian new sol': 0.3864936657131181,
 b'Philippine peso': 0.024121373109930525,
 b'Polish zloty': 0.31559051900286067,
 b'Romanian new leu': 0.28126277073968126,
 b'Russian rouble': 0.03202901512055579,
 b'Serbian dinar': 0.011228034327748262,
 b'Singapore dollar': 0.8128320392317123,
 b'South African rand': 0.11422149570903146,
 b'South Korean won': 0.0009000817327339599,
 b'Sri Lanka rupee': 0.007793216183081324,
 b'Swedish krona': 0.1493665713118104,
 b'Swiss franc': 1.0637515324887616,
 b'Taiwanese new dollar': 0.03413363302002452,
 b'Thai baht': 0.03259092766653044,
 b'Trinidad and Tobago dollar': 0.1562116877809563,
 b'Tunisian dinar': 0.6349611769513691,
 b'U.A.E. dirham': 0.27227217000408666,
 b'U.K. pound sterling': 1.5985901103391909,
 b'U.S. dollar': 1.0,
 b'Venezuelan bolivar fuerte': 0.2328361258684103,
 b'Vietnamese dong': 4.8017981201471186e-05}
 """