U.S. economy little changed, outlook 'deteriorated': Fed survey
Adds details from report
By Ann Saphir and Howard Schneider
May 31 (Reuters) -U.S. economic activity appeared to stall inrecent weeks, a Federal Reserve report published on Wednesday showed, with job growth and inflation both slowing, and near-term business prospects looking slightly worse than previously.
"Expectations for future growth deteriorated a little, though contacts still largely expected a further expansion in activity," the U.S. central bank said in its latest "Beige Book" compendium of surveys and interviews, conducted across its 12 districts through May 22.
Contacts across districts noted that while labor markets remained strong, they had "cooled some," the report said, with businesses in some regions reporting a pause in hiring or reductions in staffing due to weaker demand or greater uncertainty.
Meanwhile districts reported that the pace of inflation had slowed, with prices rising "moderately" and contacts in most parts of the country expecting a similar pace of price increases in the coming months.
Fed policymakers early this month increased the benchmark short-term interest rate a 10th straight time, taking it to a range of 5.00%-5.25%, and signaled they were near or possibly at the end of a rate-hike campaign that began last March.
Since that early-May meeting, economic data has generally come in stronger than expected, with the unemployment rate at a decades-low 3.4% and inflation by the Fed's preferred gauge at 4.4%, more than twice the Fed's target.
But many Fed policymakers since then have signaled they may rather wait before undertaking any further policy tightening. While inflation is still too high, they say, the full impact of the Fed's rate hikes so far is still making its way through the economy, and the degree of credit tightening from bank failures in March remains difficult to gauge.
The Fed's snapshot of business, bank and worker conditions published Wednesday also said financial conditions "were stable or somewhat tighter" in most of the country.
Fed policymakers have said credit conditions are a key input to their calculations for monetary policy-setting.
Overall, bank sector stress appears to have receded in the months since the March collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, despite the failure of an additional regional bank - First Republic - on May 1.
U.S. lawmakers look on course to approve a deal struck over the weekend that raises the debt ceiling and averts a catastrophic default on U.S. Treasuries.
'SCARE' FROM HIGHER RATES
Fed policymakers next meet June 13-14, before which they will get several more key pieces of economic data, including the monthly government labor market report for the month of May, and a fresh read on the consumer price index.
The Beige Book may also help shape their views of where the economy is heading, and overall did not signal the economy is either experiencing a hard stop or, conversely, a resurgence that would suggest the Fed's rate hikes to date are not doing their job to slow the economy.
About half of districts reported no change in economic activity in recent weeks, the report showed, while four reported small increases and two reported "slight to moderate declines."
And there were plenty of pockets of weakness.
"One department store contact reported a sharp sales decline in his stores that he said had 'worsened throughout March and April,'" the Cleveland Fed said.
The Minneapolis Fed, like some other districts, noted growth in consumer spending overall, but a decrease in activity at minority and women-owned businesses, with one contact who provides technical assistance to women entrepreneurs noting that higher interest rates "scare new entrepreneurs."
At the St. Louis Fed, banking contacts said loan demand had softened and they expected further weakening ahead. "Contacts reported that clients have been taking distributions from their portfolios to pay off loans and avoid new borrowing," it said.
Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Chizu Nomiyama
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
