Newswise — SMITHFIELD, R.I. – In the fourth quarter of 2010, Rhode Island’s economy expanded 1.4 percent over the previous quarter, and growth in the next two quarters is expected but at pace well below what’s required to replace jobs lost in 2007.
That’s the finding of the Bryant University-RIPEC Rhode Island Current Economic Indicator (CEI), a new way to evaluate the state’s economic performance. The Rhode Island CEI was unveiled today (March 8) by Edinaldo Tebaldi, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics at Bryant University, during the University’s economic forum on the state’s business climate.
Tebaldi worked with former Bryant economist Logan Kelly, Ph.D., now at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, to develop the Rhode Island CEI by using the Stock/Watson methodology. A paper describing their study is available.
Tebaldi attributed the Q4 expansion to regional and national economic conditions rather than to internal growth in the local economy. He noted that the number of jobs based in Rhode Island has been flat or declining.
Factors negatively affecting the Q4 CEI include the state’s struggling housing market in which construction jobs were down 0.97 percent from Q3, and poor performance of Rhode Island’s leisure and hospitality sector, down 7.71 percent from Q3.
Quarterly briefings on the CEI will be distributed through a newsletter jointly published by Bryant University and the Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council (RIPEC). The quarterly briefings will be released online as a .pdf here: www.bryant.edu/RIeconomics.
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