St. Louis Fed Introduces Burgundy Book of St. Louis Regional Economy

ST. LOUIS — At 1 p.m. CDT, Wednesday, March 19, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will release its first-ever Burgundy Book. Similar to the Fed's Beige Book, the quarterly Burgundy Book will provide a more detailed summary of economic data for the St. Louis region, which covers 71 counties in eastern Missouri and 45 counties in southern Illinois.

To access the Burgundy Book online, log on to: https://research.stlouisfed.org/regecon/district.html.

In addition, MP3 audio of clips of highlights from the Burgundy Book can be heard at: http://www.stlouisfed.org/newsroom/multimedia/audio.cfm. The audio clips feature St. Louis Fed economist and vice president Howard J. Wall commenting on several important economic indices in the St. Louis region, including consumer spending, manufacturing, real estate and construction, banking and finance, and agriculture. (NOTE: Reporters who prefer to interview Mr. Wall directly should contact the St. Louis Fed.)

The St. Louis Fed will also release separate, detailed reports on the economies in its Little Rock, Ark., Memphis, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky., regions on the same day and time.

Future releases of the 2008 Burgundy Book are planned for June 25, September 17 and December 17. Each date is approximately two weeks after the release of the Beige Book.

With branches in Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis serves the Eighth Federal Reserve District, which includes all of Arkansas, eastern Missouri, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. The St. Louis Fed is one of 12 regional Reserve banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., comprise the Federal Reserve System. As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve System formulates U.S. monetary policy, regulates state-chartered member banks and bank holding companies, and provides payment services to financial institutions and the U.S. government.

# # #