News Release: Chicago Fed Introduces Survey of Business Conditions

CHICAGO - (January 5, 2016) –The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago next week will start sending out a news release detailing the results of a new survey of Seventh District business conditions. 

The Chicago Fed Survey of Business Conditions (CFSBC) is based on information gathered for the Seventh District’s contribution to the Beige Book. The survey results, including the CFSBC Activity Index, will be released eight times a year.

The news release will be posted live at chicagofed.org at 2 p.m. CT on Wednesday, January 13, 2016. An embargoed copy of the results of the survey will be distributed to the media one hour before that time.

The survey methodology was recently published in an article in the bank’s Economic Perspectives publication.

The CFSBC is a result of increased online communication with a wider variety of Seventh District firms as part of the collection of information for the Beige Book, said Scott Brave, policy economist in the bank’s Economic Research Department.

“The quantitative indices that we will be producing will offer people a better understanding of the hiring and capital spending decisions that firms in the Seventh Federal Reserve District are making,” he said. “The indices will also offer insight into how businesses are responding to changes in economic activity, the economic outlook, and wage and price pressures.”

For more information about the CFSBC, contact Thomas Walstrum at (312) 322-4244, or via email at thomas.walstrum@chi.frb.org.

Watch a videotaped interview with Scott Brave discussing the survey and index.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Background

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the nation’s central bank. The Chicago Reserve Bank serves the seventh Federal Reserve District, which encompasses the northern portions of Illinois and Indiana, southern Wisconsin, the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and the state of Iowa. In addition to participation in the formulation of monetary policy, each Reserve Bank supervises member banks and bank holding companies, provides financial services to depository institutions and the U.S. government, and monitors economic conditions in its District.