The U.S. economy grew steadily through the fall and inflation eased a bit, a Federal Reserve survey found, but many businesses expressed “greater uncertainty or increased pessimism” about the outlook toward the end of the year. The regular Fed survey, known as the Beige Book, painted a somewhat cloudier view of the economy compared to earlier in 2022.
The survey covers the period of early October through the third week of November. The U.S. has 12 Federal Reserve banks blanketing the country. Here are the key points from the report:Inflation “The pace of price increases slowed,” the Beige Book said, in response to weaker demand and easing supply-chain bottlenecks. Retailers in particular had to cut price in some cases to sell off an excess of goods. Prices also fell for some commodities such as lumber while rent and home prices grew more slowly. Further progress was likely to be slow, however. “Inflation was expected to hold steady or moderate further moving forward,” the survey said. The increase in U.S. inflation in the 12 months ended in October stood at 7.7%. That’s down from a 40-year high of 9.1% in June. The Fed is rapidly raising interest rates to try to cut inflation to pre-pandemic levels of around 2%.Economy Economic growth was “flat or up slightly” since the last Beige Book report, the Fed said. …