Washington ? The U.S. economy coped with “slow and uneven growth” in late summer as manufacturers struggled with weak orders and retailers reported disappointing results from back-to-school sales, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in a report that kept the door open to further interest rate cuts.

Many analysts were struck by the gloomy tone of the central bank’s latest survey, based on interviews by the Fed’s 12 regional banks in August. The survey will be used by policy-makers when they meet Sept. 24 to decide whether to change interest rates.

“It was a weaker report than I had expected them to put out,” said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s in New York. “We had a summer slowdown but more recently we have had signs of economic strength with the stock market coming back.”

The report found that business activity had slowed in most parts of the country with “little or no gain in employment.”

Most of the regional banks “indicated slow and uneven economic growth with mixed or scattered experiences across sectors of the economy,” the report said.

While the bank could use the survey to justify further cuts, many economists said they expected the Fed will continue to hold rates steady, at a 40-year low, as they have done all year.

“The Fed is saying we are not out of the woods yet, but I don’t think they will cut interest rates unless we got a big jump in the unemployment rate,” said economist Richard Yamarone.

Analysts also noted a number of more upbeat assessments made recently by Fed regional bank presidents. More of the Fed’s view of the economy is to come today from Chairman Alan Greenspan in an appearance before the House Budget Committee.

Many economists have revised upward their forecasts of growth in the current quarter, some by a full percentage point to 3.5 percent, which would be far above the 1.1 percent growth rate recorded from April through June.