Mass. economic growth outpaces U.S.
Economic growth in Massachusetts outpaced national economic growth in the fourth quarter and strong growth is expected in the Bay State for the first half of 2014, according to preliminary data from MassBenchmarks, the economic journal published by the UMass Donahue Institute and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
The state’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a 5.5-percent annual rate during the quarter, MassBenchmarks said, equal to the revised rate for the third quarter. MassBenchmarks said the U.S. economy grew at a 3.2-percent annual rate in the fourth quarter.
Based on state withholding and sales taxes, nominal wage and salary income grew at a 12.3-percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter, and nominal spending on items subject to regular and automobile sales taxes rose at a 9.2-percent annualized rate, MassBenchmarks said. That’s better than the third quarter, when wage and salary income increased by a more modest 2.9 percent and spending increased 6.5 percent.
“Household balance sheets have strengthened considerably, fortified by four years of steady growth in employment and incomes, and more recent improvements in the stock market and home prices,” said Alan Clayton-Matthews, MassBenchmarks’ senior contributing editor.
The MassBenchmarks Leading Economic Index is predicting that real Massachusetts GDP will grow at a 5-percent annual rate in the first quarter and 4.7 percent in the second.
(Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net)
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