Fed Sees Modest Recovery Nationwide : Economy: Report says that even California is showing signs of resurgence in electronics, retail and other areas.

WASHINGTON — Rising levels of consumer spending and housing sales are contributing to a modest but self-sustaining recovery across the country, with even California’s moribund economy showing signs of life in some sectors, the Federal Reserve Board said in a report released Wednesday.

Business activity has increased nationwide at a slow but steady pace, with notable strength in autos sales, tourism, real estate markets and agricultural industries.

The report notes that California’s economy, while still going through sluggish times, showed promising signs of resurgence in electronics, agriculture, retail trade and other areas.

“Some improvement is reported . . . in California’s electronics and retail trade sectors, and continued strength is reported in sectors such as motion pictures and agriculture,” the report says.

The Federal Reserve System report on “Current Economic Conditions” is based on surveys of business and industry leaders conducted by the Fed’s 12 regional banks.

The report also notes that business sentiment in the West has improved, with two-thirds of those responding saying they expect the real economy to expand at a faster rate over the next four quarters.

However, the report also notes that while California’s economic outlook is “more positive” than previous reports, “the overall picture remains weak, particularly in the south.” Moreover, much of the improvement is happening in Northern California, while the southern region remains in a slump.

Seeking to place the signs of improvement in perspective, Fed officials in San Francisco said the outlook stemmed more from the lack of any “new bad news” than from any sharp improvement.

“The flip side of why we’re slightly more positive is because our contacts in California are no longer as terribly gloomy as they were before,” said Brian Cromwell, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco.

The report notes that, while in many areas agriculture suffered from weather-related problems, farmland acreage increased in California as the drought afflicting the state ended.