Mass Economy Shifting Into "Lower Gear" Declares MassBenchmarks Editorial Board
The latest MassBenchmarks Bulletin indicates that the Massachusetts state economy, which had been experiencing faster-than-national growth, is slowing down. The MassBenchmarks Leading Economic Index anticipates continued slowing of the state’s economy, as global demand for many of the Commonwealth’s major exports weakens.
While uncertainty in China and Europe, two of Massachusetts' largest global financial markets, persists, the state is also grappling with consumer spending cuts, a feeble housing sector recovery and an ongoing fiscal drag largely stemming from continued layoffs in the state and local government sector.
These headwinds occur at a time when the oft-mentioned fiscal cliff, which will impose a series of federal tax increases and expenditure cuts, approaches. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a national recession would result if the nation jumps off this "cliff.” While MassBenchmarks does not anticipate an economic recession returning to Massachusetts in coming months, the board did express an urgent hope that the nation's political institutions will address the serious fiscal and economic issues threatening state and national economies.
MassBenchmarks is published by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute in cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Read the full bulletin, “Mass Economy Shifting Into "Lower Gear" Declares MassBenchmarks Editorial Board”
September 26, 2012
