For immediate release July 19, 2000
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta today announced that it will no longer publish the results of its monthly survey of Southeastern manufacturers. The Atlanta Fed?s decision follows its announcement in May that it was suspending publication of the survey.
The Atlanta Fed cited two principal reasons for ceasing publication of its survey. First, the survey sample is no longer representative of the population of manufacturing firms in the Atlanta Fed's district; this situation could lead to conclusions that might not fully reflect the state of the region?s manufacturing sector at a given time. In recent years the manufacturing sector in the Southeast has undergone significant changes in its makeup as many traditional southern industries moved overseas and high-tech and automotive industries moved into the region. This trend has intensified since the inception of the survey in 1992. The Atlanta Fed determined that it would require substantial resources to update and reconstitute the survey sample to make it more representative.
Second, the Atlanta Fed determined that the survey does not provide information, beyond what is available from other sources, that significantly contributes to a better understanding of the regions manufacturing trends.
"For these reasons, we determined that it was a prudent time to cease publication of the survey and focus our efforts on other resources for monitoring manufacturing in our region, including other publicly available data sources and continuing conversations with our regional manufacturing contacts and our network of Federal Reserve Bank directors, who provide valuable anecdotal information," said Robert Eisenbeis, senior vice president and research director at the Atlanta Fed.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta serves the Sixth Federal Reserve District, which encompasses Alabama, Florida, Georgia and portions of Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. As part of the nation's central banking system, the Atlanta Fed participates in setting national monetary policy, supervises numerous commercial banks and provides a variety of financial services to depository institutions and the U.S. government.