The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is expanding its outreach to businesses in the Ninth District by issuing its current business conditions survey in three additional languages starting in October 2021.
The survey, to be issued in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali, is designed to gather regional economic intelligence from entrepreneurs across several dimensions. Survey questions will ask business owners about their experience in the current economy and about their expectations for the future.
“Specifically, we want to know about their experiences hiring and retaining workers, how customer demand is holding up, and what they are seeing in their costs and prices,” said Karmi Mattson, assistant vice president of Regional Outreach at the Minneapolis Fed. “It is also important for us to know what challenges businesses in our region are facing, particularly those businesses that may have been underrepresented in past survey efforts.”
The surveys will open on October 11, 2021, and will be distributed through local chambers of commerce and community organizations. Business owners who do not receive the survey and are interested in responding can email outreach@mpls.frb.org to receive a link.
Survey responses are anonymous, and the resultant data will be analyzed and shared with Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and other Fed officials. Gathering information from a diverse and representative set of businesses and entrepreneurs is important for developing monetary policy that serves the broad interests and experiences of Ninth District residents.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that, with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System, the nation’s central bank. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is responsible for the Ninth Federal Reserve District, which includes Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis participates in setting national monetary policy, supervises numerous banking organizations, and provides a variety of payments services to financial institutions and the U.S. government.