Discussion Paper

What Businesses Are Saying: Activity Up, but Expectations Mixed

Abstract: The Richmond Fed is an on-the-ground Reserve Bank. Our economic sensing team is constantly in the Fifth District, meeting with firms across industries to put together — piece by piece — a picture of where the economy stands. With the help of a robust network of business leaders willing to share what they're seeing, thinking and planning, we can get a regular pulse on the economy and check in on specific sectors as needed on an ad hoc basis. On-the-ground sensing provides critical information toward our real-time understanding of the economy. Sensing is a supplement to our in-house surveys and national and regional data, the latter which often come in late and are revised multiple times. Sensing helps us move beyond "what" is happening to the "how" and "why," which provides us with a better idea of how enduring or impactful a trend will be and allows us to catch real-time turning points in the economy. These efforts help inform our Beige Book report but are broader and occur through business relationships built over time by our sensing team. You can read more about the value sensing offers the Fed in the latest issue of Econ Focus. In this post, we draw from dozens of our conversations with businesses from early August to early September.

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Part of Series: Regional Matters

Publication Date: 2025-09-19