US economy which it says has seen a slowdown across all regions since January.

PRLog (Press Release) – Mar 07, 2008 – A new report from the US Federal Reserve is further gloomy reading on the US economy which it says has seen a slowdown across all regions since January.

The Reserve's 'Beige Book' report said housing, manufacturing and retail activity have all declined in the last couple of months, while high fuel and food costs have pushed up inflation.

Two-thirds of the 12 regions surveyed reported "softening or weakening in the pace of business activity, while the others referred to subdued, slow or modest growth."

"Retail activity in most districts was reported to be weak or softening," the report said.

"Manufacturing was said to be sluggish or to have slowed in about half the districts."

The report is seen by many analysts as indicating the bank will cut interest rates again when it meets on March 18th.

The central bank has already reduced rates to three per cent from 5.25 per cent since mid-September 2007.

Traders surveyed by Bloomberg believe the Federal Open Market Committee will lower the benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage points by the end of the next meeting.

Further analysis of the US economy could be supplied by Aranca, an end-to-end provider of on-demand, custom investment, business and economic research.