Eighth District Economic Conditions Survey

Current release: Nov. 20, 2025 | Next release: Feb. 24, 2026

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis conducts a quarterly survey of businesses in the Eighth Federal Reserve District, which covers all of Arkansas and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. The survey is administered in February, May, August and November. We ask regional business and community leaders about a range of topics, from their staffing levels and input costs to customer demand. These data, graphed below, provide a deeper understanding of current economic conditions.

Respondents are asked to compare current conditions with conditions at the same time in the previous year:

“Increased”
“Slightly Increased”
“No Change”
“Slightly Decreased”
“Decreased”
“N/A”

The charts show the net percentage values: the difference between the percentage of respondents reporting increases and the percentage of respondents reporting decreases.

Values greater than zero indicate a net increase from one year ago.
Values less than zero indicate a net decrease from one year ago.
In some cases, the net value is zero (and not missing information), indicating there has been no change relative to the previous year.

Measures calculated this way are often called diffusion indexes. As the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond notes, diffusion indexes are commonly used to analyze economic trends. They capture prevalence of change (“how many”) but do not necessarily account for intensity (“how much”). They are highly valuable for offering timely insights into economic conditions.

The St. Louis Fed produces two indexes that summarize overall activity and prices in our region:

Activity Index: the unweighted average of capital expenditures, dollar sales, employment, hours per employee, and inventory.
Inflation Index: the unweighted average of prices charged to customers, labor costs, and non-labor costs.

The information from this survey is one input that informs the St. Louis Fed’s contributions to the Beige Book, and it helps prepare St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem for Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings.

We seek information from businesses in our District as part of a comprehensive effort to accurately assess the regional economy. Participation is voluntary, and survey information is compiled to preserve anonymity.

Join the survey panel

Latest regional survey results

In the interactive charts shown below, you can turn specific categories on or off by clicking the legends. These data are also available for download (.xlsx).

Economic activity: Changes relative to the same quarter the previous year

Survey question: We are approaching the mid-point of the quarter. Please estimate how each measure (dollar sales, inventory, capital expenditures, hours per employee, and employment) has changed at your business during the current quarter relative to the same quarter last year.

Inflation pressures: Change relative to the same quarter the previous year

Survey question: How has each measure (prices charged to customers, non-labor costs, and labor costs) changed at your business during the current quarter relative to the same quarter last year?

Banking conditions

Survey question: How have credit standards, delinquencies, and loan demand changed during the current quarter relative to the same quarter last year? Please estimate how you expect credit standards, delinquencies, and loan demand next quarter to change relative to the same quarter last year.

Outlook: Net percent of responses expecting conditions to improve

Survey question: How do you expect local economic conditions to change over the next 12 months? Answers for this question could be “Worse,” “Slightly Worse,” “About the Same,” “Slightly Better,” or “Better.”

Selected indicators by sector

This chart shows the activity index, employment, inflation index, and economic outlook by sector: agriculture, goods producing and distribution, real estate and construction, and services.