US economy started strong in 2023 on firm consumer spending: Fed Beige Book

The economy proved resilient to start the new year, marked by steady consumer spending and stabilizing manufacturing activity, contacts surveyed in the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book said.
 

“Overall economic activity increased slightly in early 2023,” the Fed said Wednesday in the report, published two weeks before each meeting of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. 

However, the outlook going forward is less optimistic. “Amid heightened uncertainty, contacts did not expect economic conditions to improve much in the months ahead,” the report said, drawing from anecdotal information collected by the Fed’s 12 regional banks through Feb. 27.

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