Washington – The economy registered modest growth in the early summer, considering how consumers and some businesses were buffeted by high gasoline prices and the sour housing market.
That’s the gist of a Federal Reserve region-by-region survey – known as the Beige Book for the color of the cover – released Wednesday, which also showed the economy clearly has emerged from a rut at the beginning of the year and is now growing, albeit slowly.
On the inflation front, consumer prices continued to rise “at a moderate rate,” the Fed report said. “Almost every region said that oil and gasoline prices were either rising, high or an issue,” it noted. Gas prices have climbed past $3 a gallon nationwide.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress last week that he expects the economy to grow gradually through the course of this year and to strengthen a bit next year. He said that inflation remains the chief concern.
The biggest threat to the economy is if inflation doesn’t recede as Fed policymakers anticipate, Bernanke said, when he delivered the Fed’s midyear economic assessment to Capitol Hill.
Consumer spending – a major shaper of overall economic activity – continued to grow in the early summer.
