The Economy as a Monet from Marketplace. I'm Sabrie Beneshore in for David Brancaccio.

So usually we talk about the economy with numbers, GDP, retail sales, jobs numbers, kind of like a photograph of how things are going.

But there's another way to read the economy, and it's more like an impressionist painting.

Eight times a year, the Federal Reserve publishes something called

the Beige book. It's based on interviews and stories from people and businesses around the country.

The latest one is out. Marketplace's Nova Safo is our economic art critic today. The It's released ahead of policy meetings to decide on the path of interest rates.

The latest report showed easing price increases in almost all Fed districts, and companies

surveyed expected wage pressures to continue to ease over the next year.

In other words, no big changes to the economy's trajectory.

That means the Fed might have plenty of runway before needing to cut rates.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller said as much at a virtual forum ahead of the

Beige books release. The key is we have the flexibility that we can be

methodical and careful. In earlier times a recession would hit some bad negative shock and the

Ephalimse had to move fast and by a lot that's not the situation we're facing

right now so we can take our time to make sure we do this right so will the Fed cut interest rates as early as March as many

economists and investors expected heading into this year? Trading on Wall Street suggests

investors are reducing their bets on the likelihood of that happening.

I'm Nova Safo for Marketplace.

China's economy, as we talked about yesterday, grew at its lowest pace outside the pandemic

in decades, 5.2 percent and youth unemployment is still pretty high.

But for those who have a job, they're working longer hours.

In December, the average work week in China was 49 hours that is 15 hours more than the

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