2012 economic performance

Many numbers are released gauging the progress of the economy, but one of the favorites among economists is gross domestic product, or GDP.  We just received the 2012 GDP numbers for the states.  How did North Carolina do? N.C. State University economist Mike Walden responds.

“Just to remind our listeners, GDP does stand for the aggregate production amount of a state, or aggregate income increase, so it’s the broadest measure of our economy. And in 2012, GDP for the nation rose 2.5 percent. Here in North Carolina, we actually did better. Our GDP was up 2.7 percent.

We were actually in the second of five tiers of economic growth by GDP of all the states, and we also did better than most of our surrounding states, better than Virginia, better than Georgia. We’re about the same as South Carolina.

We were not as good as Tennessee, but I think Tennessee has benefitted from the re-emergence of the auto industry. So, this is very good news for North Carolina. It does show, number one, that we are in an economic rebound and, number two, that the rebound here has actually been a little stronger than in the nation. This is really typical for North Carolina. We tend to get hit harder by recessions, but we do tend to bounce back faster.”