March 4, 2004
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Factories hummed and consumers kept cash registers busy in the first two months of this year, fresh evidence that the economic recovery is moving ahead, according to a Federal Reserve report released Wednesday.
"Economic activity continued to expand in January and February," the Fed said in its latest survey of business conditions around the country. However, on the jobs front, "employment has been growing slowly in most Federal Reserve districts," the report said.
The report, dubbed the Beige Book for the color of its cover, will be used as a basis for discussion when central bank policy-makers meet on March 16.
• Comments are published and readable immediately upon submission. If you want to submit a comment that you don't want published, send it to our staff with the "Letters" submission form.
• HTML, including style tags and hyperlinks, will be automatically removed.
• Comments are not edited. They are either displayed in their entirety or not displayed at all. Comments judged to be inappropriate for the DJC audience will be removed.
