STL Fed releases new look at local economy

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has just launched another way of viewing our local economy: The Burgundy Book.

Modeled after the Fed’s Beige Book, the St. Louis Fed’s Burgundy Book (available here) is a quarterly look at business conditions in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois - and at other regions of the St. Louis Fed - taken from surveys of local companies and various economic data.

The first issue, covering early 2008, is out today.

And as you might expect, the picture it paints is grim. Consumer spending, manufacturing, real estate and construction and banking and finance have all slowed in recent months, to varying degrees. Of the region’s major economic sectors, only agriculture and natural resources remain strong, buoyed by high crop prices and faster coal mining.

A few tidbits:

- 17 percent of auto dealers surveyed said their proportion of used car sales was growing, relative to new. One-third said they’re seeing more rejections of financing applications.

- January home sales dropped 12 percent in January, and the share of sales at the “very low end” of the market increased.

- Half of the banks surveyed reported softening demand for loans, most notably in commercial real estate and commercial and industrial loans.