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Fourth District Beige Book
Explore Economic Conditions and Expectations across Our Region
Overview
Published eight times a year, the Beige Book is a Federal Reserve System publication about current and expected economic conditions across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts. The Cleveland Fed produces the Fourth District Beige Book report, which covers Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia.
The Fourth District report tracks real-time economic trends based on information gathered from a survey of regional businesses and other sources. The survey covers topics such as staffing levels, cost pressures, pricing decisions, and changes in customer demand for goods and services. These trends are examined across sectors including manufacturing, financial services, retail, and professional and business services. The community conditions section of this report explores how the economy is impacting low- and moderate-income households in our District.
Fourth District report archive
The archive below contains recent reports for the Fourth District. The Federal Reserve Board compiles reports for all 12 Districts, including an overall summary, in the national Beige Book.
| 2026 |
| July 15 |
| June 3 |
| April 15 |
| March 4 |
| January 14 |
How is the Beige Book compiled?
Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports from Bank and branch directors and interviews and online questionnaires completed by businesses, community organizations, economists, market experts, and other sources. The Beige Book is a summary of the information collected by each District and is published eight times per year.
Cleveland Fed researchers gather data for the Fourth District report primarily through our Survey of Regional Conditions and Expectations (SORCE), completed eight times yearly by business and community leaders across our region. We also draw insights from one-on-one meetings, advisory councils, and roundtables. For the community conditions section, we engage nonprofit and community leaders to understand how the economy is affecting low- and moderate-income households.
Interested in participating in the SORCE panel that informs the Beige Book? Contact our team to see if your organization would be a good fit for the survey.
How does the Cleveland Fed use Beige Book information?
We use information collected for the Beige Book to identify emerging economic trends and inform Federal Reserve policymakers about regional conditions in preparation for Federal Open Market Committee meetings in Washington DC. Additionally, the data collected support the development of SORCE indexes, which provide timely measures of economic activity across the Fourth District.
Related resources
Beige Book’s community conditions
The community conditions section of the Beige Book focuses on economic conditions affecting low- to moderate-income (LMI) communities in the District, covering topics such as employment access, credit availability, housing affordability, and community development initiatives. This section draws on insights from community organizations—including nonprofits and social service agencies—gathered through surveys and roundtables conducted by our community development researchers.
Survey of Regional Conditions and Expectations (SORCE)
SORCE indexes are based on our survey of business and community leaders and provide a timely summary of economic activity in our region, which includes all of Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Released eight times per year.
We also provide SORCE Insights District Data Briefs, which analyze the results from special questions that explore timely issues that may be impacting businesses across the Fourth District. See our latest brief.
Beige Book archive
This Minneapolis Fed site has Beige Book content going back to 1970. Here, you can select reports for any given District or the national summary using a drop-down search tool.
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Receive email alerts for new research published by the Cleveland Fed, including Economic Commentaries, Beige Book, District Data Briefs, and reports on our region.