Got some questions from the twitterverse on our economic trajectory, so wanted to share the latest BEA data here - I had posted a snapshot about it when it was first released, but now let's get into some of the detail. As a reminder, the BEA updates its data 3x subsequent to its initial release so we will get some refinements as the year progresses.
9th Fastest Growth in the US
Headline number is quite strong - our economy expanded at 4.6%, the 9th fastest in the country and the fastest growth in our region. Looking at the composition of what drove that growth:
Finance and Insurance experienced a dramatic acceleration, growing almost 13%. The BEA doesn't split finance from insurance in its quarterly detail so we'll need to wait a bit to see if one or the other drove this, given both industries are quite large in CT.
Manufacturing continues to be a core driver of our economic growth, driven by our positioning in support of our national defense. A lot of basic manufacturing left CT over the last several decades as it did elsewhere, dropping manufacturing from 17% of our GDP to 10%. But it has been growing nicely again driven by the national priority to onshore supply chains in support of our national defense. That was partially the motivation behind Strategic Supply Chains, a program we launched earlier this year in the anticipation of rising protectionism. Manufacturing is now back up to 12% of our GDP and growing.
Construction was our next biggest contributor, as we continue to invest in the infrastructure to support our population growth, including housing.
In terms of what declined, Utilities and Federal spending were the two biggest drops, declining 16% and 14% respectively, which while disappointing wasn't exactly a surprise given some of the volatility and pullback we have seen recently in both categories.
I posted the data in full here. If any questions feel free to comment below.