The consolidated economic report from the 12 Federal Reserve Districts (Beige Book) stated: “the majority of Federal Reserve Districts reporting modest to moderate growth“. The previous report stated, “economy expanded at a moderate pace“.

Analyst Opinion of this month’s Beige Book

Seems like the rate of growth was slower than the last report as this month’s “modest to moderate growth” is weaker than “moderate pace” in the Fedspeak language. Note the following statement from the Federal Reserve:

This document summarizes comments received from contacts outside the Federal Reserve System and is not a commentary on the views of Federal Reserve officials.

Please see the end of this post for words the Federal Reserve uses when the economy is entering a recession. The Beige Book completely missed the 2001 recession and was late in seeing the Great Recession.

This report was prepared at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond based on information collected on or before October 15, 2018.