Mass. Growth Hit 4% In 2nd Quarter
Economic growth in Massachusetts reached an annualized rate of 4 percent in the second quarter, nearly triple the growth in the national economy, according to the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts.
The state economy is expected to grow over the rest of the year at a slightly slower annual rate of 3.6 percent, according to the latest Current Economic Index, which was released this morning by MassBenchmarks, which Donahue co-publishes with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
MassBenchmarks believes economic weakness in Europe and slowing growth in China could be a drag on growth in the Bay State. "There is substantial downside risk to this outlook," said Alan Clayton-Matthews, a senior contributing editor to MassBenchmarks and an economics professor at Northeastern University, who cited the situations in Europe and China, along with the "uncertainty about whether and how (a) looming 'fiscal cliff' coming in 2013 will be resolved."
Martin Romitti, MassBenchmarks' managing editor and Donahue's director of economic and public policy research, said economic problems in Europe is lowering merchandise exports from the state by 1.3 percent from January through May of this year over the same period in 2011. But merchandise exports nationwide are up 6.8 percent, he said.
The state's labor market continued to improve in the second quarter, according to MassBenchmarks, though at a slower pace than in the first quarter. The unemployment rate fell a half a percent to 6 percent in June, compared to a national unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. The national rate remained unchanged from the first quarter.
MassBenchmarks recognized that underemployment has a major challenge to the job market. The number of people working part-time jobs because they can't find permanent, full-time employment remained high at 12.2 percent, though slightly better than the national rate of 14.9 percent.
In addition, consumer spending showed signs of rebounding in the second quarter, with purchases on items subject to sales tax growing at a 6.5 percent annual rate after falling 10.9 percent in the first quarter. Sales grew 3.8 percent, year-over-year, in the second quarter.
Image source: Freedigitalphotos.net
Read more
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments