Investing.com — Economic growth was little changed over the past month and signs of labor market tightness continued to ease, though services inflation remains on the up, and up, according to the Federal Reserve’s released Wednesday.
“Most Districts indicated little to no change in economic activity since the September report, the Fed said in its Beige Book economic report, based on anecdotal information collected by the Fed’s 12 reserve banks through Oct. 6.
The near-term outlook for the economy was generally described as “stable or having slightly weaker growth,” the report said, with firms’ expectations of the holiday shopping season, an important driver of sales, mixed.
The tight labor market, which underpins wage growth and inflation expectations, continued to ease and firms “were hiring less urgently,” according to Beige Book report.
On the inflation front, prices continued to increase at a “modest pace overall,” the report said, though services inflation, which makes up the bulk of inflation, continued to rise.
Firms have been struggling to maintain profit margins as “businesses struggled to pass along cost pressures because consumers had grown more sensitive to prices,” according to the report. “As a result, firms struggled to maintain desired profit margins.”
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