"Expectations for future growth deteriorated a little, though contacts still largely expected a further expansion in activity," the U.S. central bank said in its latest "Beige Book" compendium of surveys and interviews, conducted across its 12 districts through May 22.
Fed policymakers early this month increased the benchmark short-term interest rate a 10th straight time, taking it to a range of 5.00%-5.25%, and signaled they were near or possibly at the end of a rate-hike campaign that began last March., with the unemployment rate at a decades-low 3.4% and inflation by the Fed's preferred gauge at 4.4%, more than twice the Fed's target.before undertaking any further policy tightening.
Overall, bank sector stress appears to have receded in the months since the March collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, despite the failure of an additional regional bank - First Republic - on May 1.