Fed Beige Book flags intensifying price pressures

The US Federal Reserve (Fed) released its Beige Book, a qualitative report that summarises regional and national economic conditions and is used by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) at each of its eight monetary policy meetings.

The Beige Book stated that “most districts” saw little change in overall employment levels and that, since the previous Beige Book release, two of the twelve districts reported moderate growth in economic activity.

Despite this, the book said that expectations “tend to be for slight growth.” Three districts reported robust price growth, while three of eight districts noted intensifying input price pressures.

Key highlights:

Most districts described little or no net change in overall employment levels.

Since the prior Beige Book, two of the twelve Federal Reserve districts reported moderate growth in economic activity.

However, expectations tend to be for slight growth, weighted toward manufacturing and burdened by persistent uncertainties.

Three districts characterized overall price growth as robust, while eight noted that growth was moderate—and three of the eight noted that input price pressures were intensifying, if not already growing robustly.