Articles by FER Edit

All four expectations indicators in the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index were down sharply in the August survey, including plans for capital spending. Still,…

Because the short-term economic outlook is so dicey, what with the federal government partial shutdown and the looming debt-ceiling deadline, we might want to focus…

Forecasts for growth of real GDP in the U.S. held steady in the latest consensus forecasts of economists polled by Blue Chip Economic Indicators. The…

Writing FER Fortnightly Economic Report is more challenging this week in part because we are missing a number of key government reports. Among them are…

As we write this, it looks increasingly possible that Congress will fail to pass legislation to increase the U.S. federal debt ceiling or restart the…

Nonfarm payrolls grew by a sluggish 148,000 jobs in September, according to the delayed federal employment report, released Oct. 22. Private-sector jobs growth was 126,000.…

The Canadian economy and its foodservice market have been stagnant the past couple of years. Growth of real gross domestic product is forecast at 1.7%…

It’s a fact of foodservice life that wealthier households spend more eating out than others. The rule of thumb is half of foodservice spending is…

Just as nearly everyone expected, the federal government shutdown and debt-ceiling brinkmanship undercut consumer confidence. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index fell more…

Wholesale food prices fell 0.5% in September, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while gasoline prices at the consumer level continued to…