What is the Beige Book?

The Beige Book is an informal name for a report published by the Federal Reserve on economic conditions. The official name for the Beige book is the "Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District." This is both a statistical report and economic data about the present economic conditions of the country. The Beige book contains ongoing reports by the Federal Reserve and is published eight times in a year by the U.S. central bank. The Beige book also contains information on current economic conditions gathered by each of the Federal Reserve Bank in the United States.

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How Does the Beige Book Work?

The Beige Book or the "Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District" is published before the meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee. This book contains reports from each of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts in the U.S, each district summarizes information received from interviews with economists, market experts, and participants, and other sources. The Beige Book is published about two weeks before the FOMC meeting to keep them updated on present economic conditions, the economic data reviewed by the FOMC at the previous meeting are also included in the book. Members of the public can have access to the Beige book through the Board of Governors website. Although, the Beige book has had different names in history such as the Blue Book, Green Book, and the Red Book, its first compilation as done in 1970, although only became available after 1985.