Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
04/22/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/22/2025 08:56
SORCE Insights: An Initial Look at the Anticipated Impact of Tariffs on Fourth District Businesses
Cleveland Fed District Data Brief
SORCE Insights: An Initial Look at the Anticipated Impact of Tariffs on Fourth District Businesses
The Cleveland Fed's Survey of Regional Conditions and Expectations (SORCE) administered in February 2025 asked respondents from across the Fourth District a set of special questions about the potential impact of tariffs on their business. This District Data Brief analyzes their responses.
The views authors express in District Data Briefs are theirs and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The series editor is Harrison Markel.
Introduction
The Cleveland Fed's Research Department gathers and analyzes timely economic information from businesses and community contacts to inform our Beige Book contribution and preparation for Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings. One way we obtain this information is through the Survey of Regional Conditions and Expectations (SORCE), a business conditions survey sent to firms across the Fourth District.1, 2The SORCE is administered eight times per year. In addition to the set of standard questions asked during each round of the survey, the Cleveland Fed routinely asks a set of "special questions" to explore timely issues that may be impacting businesses across the Fourth District. In the version of the SORCE fielded during February 6-13, 2025, the Cleveland Fed asked respondents a series of special questions regarding the potential impact of tariffs on their business. The responses are analyzed below.
Analysis
The first of these special questions, which was used as a filter to determine whether respondents would proceed to additional questions, asked, "Would tariffs on imports impact your business?" (Figure 1). Around two-thirds (64 percent) of respondents said that tariffs would impact their business, while 12 percent said that they would not. Another 24 percent of respondents said that they were unsure if tariffs would impact their business.