St. Louis Fed Updates Economic Conditions on Its Seven-State District

ST. LOUIS—The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis released today its portion of the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book, also published today.  The local report summarizes economic conditions for the Eighth District, which is based in St. Louis and covers all of Arkansas and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. 

The St. Louis Fed’s Beige Book is available at https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/beige-book/march-2-2016.

The local report includes the District’s status regarding:

• employment, wages and prices;
• consumer spending;
• manufacturing and other business activity;
• real estate and construction;
• banking and finance; and
• agriculture and natural resources.

The full edition of the Beige Book is available at http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/beigebook/beigebook201603.htm.

Formally known as the Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District, the Beige Book is published eight times per year in advance of each regularly scheduled meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. Each Federal Reserve bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its district through reports from bank and branch directors, as well as through interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts and other sources.  The Beige Book summarizes this information by district and sector.