St. Louis Fed Releases Beige Book

ST. LOUIS ― The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis released its portion of the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book, 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 includes highlights of St. Louis, Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis, and is available at https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional/beige-book.

The local report includes the District’s status regarding:

• employment and wages
• prices
• consumer spending
• manufacturing
• nonfinancial services
• real estate and construction
• banking and finance
• agriculture and natural resources

The full edition of the Beige Book can be accessed at www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/beigebook/default.htm.

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.  An overall summary of the 12 District reports is prepared by a designated Federal Reserve Bank on a rotating basis.