Fed in economic data hunt turns to the tried

By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two weeks before the U.S. Federal Reserve’s last meeting, with the federal government’s data spigot closed, Atlanta Fed staff backstopped their view of the economy by analyzing how past surveys of business executives had aligned with employment, spending, output and other data captured in federal reports.

The results boosted their confidence that central bank policymakers still had good, if rough, substitutes available ahead of the October 28-29 meeting, between surveys that proved to closely track the economy, private data the Fed has used for years and new insights from emergent technology firms.

While Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the official data hiatus could make policymakers more cautious about further policy changes, the Fed is in some wa