Boston Globe reports on MassBenchmarks findings
The Boston Globe’s profile of MassBenchmarks’ latest findings on the state economy included input from Martin Romitti, director of Economic and Public Policy Research at the UMass Donahue Institute; Alan Clayton-Matthews, MassBenchmarks Senior Contributing Editor; and MassBenchmarks Co-Editor Michael Goodman. MassBenchmarks, the quarterly journal of the Massachusetts economy is published by the UMass Donahue Institute in cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
The journal measured the state’s fourth quarter economic growth at a 2.3 percent annual rate, down from 3.2 percent in the third quarter and lower than the U.S. fourth quarter rate of 2.8 percent. The slowdown is largely attributed to a slump in demand for the information technology products that propelled the state’s recent economic spurt.
The European debt crisis threatens sales of technology, pharmaceuticals, and other Massachusetts products in those markets, said Goodman. Europe accounts for about 40 percent of the state’s exports.
Although the current number represents a drop from the previous quarter’s growth rate, the state experienced a similar trend last year, when a fourth quarter dip was followed by a strong rebound. Economists anticipate a repeat this year and MassBenchmarks forecasts a 4 percent growth rate by the second quarter of 2012.
Read article: UMass: State economy slowed at end of 2011
January 27, 2012
