Beige Book: Most Districts indicated economic growth was modest

<ul><li>Most Districts indicated economic growth was modest during July and August</li><li>Consumer spending on tourism was stronger than expected but other retail spending continued to slow, especially non-essential</li><li>Some Districts highlighted reports suggesting consumers may have
exhausted their savings and are relying more on borrowing to support
spending</li><li>New auto sales did expand in many Districts, but contacts noted this had
more to do with better availability of inventory rather than increased
consumer demand.</li><li>Manufacturing contacts in several Districts also noted that supply chain delays improved</li><li>New orders were stable or declined in most Districts, and backlogs shortened</li><li>Nearly all Districts reported the inventory of homes for sale remained constrained</li><li> Some Districts reported higher delinquencies on consumer credit lines</li><li>Job growth was subdued across the nation</li><li>Nearly all Districts indicated businesses renewed their previously
unfulfilled expectations that wage growth will slow broadly in the near
term.</li><li>Most Districts reported price growth slowed overall, decelerating faster in manufacturing and consumer-goods sectors.</li><li><a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/beigebook202309.htm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Full report</a></li></ul><p>This is about what you would expect from this report, though I found the jobs commentary and wage commentary to be more dour than I expected. It sums up what we already know: the jobs market is softening, retail is soft, manufacturing is slow but steady and there is still some pent up savings.</p>

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.