By Ed Frankl
Manufacturing activity in the central U.S. cooled a little in June, though expectations for future business conditions remained positive, amid an uncertain economic and political outlook.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City said Thursday that the Tenth District manufacturing survey's composite index declined to minus eight in June from minus two in May. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected a dip not as sharply, to minus four.
The Kansas City Fed survey measures manufacturing activity in the western third of Missouri, all of Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wyoming, and the northern half of New Mexico.
All month-over-month indexes were negative and fell from last month--including measures of employment and production--except supplier delivery time and indexes that showed rising prices, the data said.
Expectations, however, continued to be robust, with firms continuing to see increases in production and employment in future months, the Kansas Fed said.
But inflation continues to hamper consumer demand for goods, according to the survey.
"It is clear inflation has forced the customer to make 'either/or' decisions on how they spend their money," said one respondent.
Falling factory activity in the region comes despite private-sector manufacturing activity accelerating a little this month in the nation as a whole, according to business surveys published last week.
Write to Ed Frankl at edward.frankl@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-27-24 1136ET
