Recent Economic Numbers Are Deceptive
Also, latest CNBC rankings show North Dakota ranked 36th for "Top States For Business", down from 13th last year.
Back in February, I wrote an article about how in real GDP terms (according to the Federal Reserve), North Dakota has been in a “GDP Recession” for the better part of a decade.
Last week, Governor Doug Burgum issued a press release touting the latest data regarding GDP data issued by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
The headlines of “North Dakota leading the nation in GDP” got a lot of attention, and the data cites a specifically high figure of 12.4% - which is the “annualized quarterly” change in 1st Quarter of 2023.
There are a few issues with this analysis that has not been pointed out by the media that simply took the governor’s press release and ran it as a news article.
“Annualized Quarterly” Data looks at a particular quarter, and assumes that is the norm.
Quarterly economic data in general can be deceiving as economic activity is not constant in a commodity-driven state like North Dakota. Things like winter, oil prices, and crop harvest sales impact the economic activ…
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