The Bureau of Economic Analysis has released advance estimates for 2007 state gross products. Overall, GDP growth slowed or remained unchanged in all U.S. regions, while national GDP grew by 2% in 2007 compared to 3.1% in 2006.
Regions with the most state GDP growth in 2007 were:
- The Pacific Northwest & Rocky Mountain (WA, OR, ID, + MT and UT)
- South Central (TX, OK, KS)
- Northern Plains (ND, SD, MN)
Low-growth regions included:
- The southern Far West (CA, NV, + AZ)
- The Great Lakes (WI, MI, IL, IN, OH)
- The Southeast (mixed — higher-growth states were NC, LA, KY, GA)
- The Northeast (except NY and DC)
(Note: these “regions” don’t necessarily match region boundaries or names used by the BEA.)
The slowdown was led by Construction and Finance & Insurance industries, consistent with the “credit crunch” widely discussed in the media in past months. CA, NV, AZ, and FL (all states that experienced a significant subprime-related housing bubble) experienced extreme deceleration in growth and in 2007 were in the mid to lower quintiles of all states.
