Connecticut’s economy showed encouraging growth during the first quarter of 2018 ranking 23rd in the nation, according to federal officials.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on Tuesday reported that Connecticut’s real GDP, which is adjusted for inflation, rose 1.1 percent from Jan. 1 through March 31. That ranks the state 23rd in the U.S. in GDP growth and second in New England behind Vermont (2.6 percent). New England’s GDP growth averaged 1.5 percent.
GDP measures market value of goods and services produced by labor and properties in each state, according to BEA.
Finance and insurance sectors in Connecticut produced the state’s largest GDP increase of 0.42 percent. The information (0.27 percent), durable goods manufacturing (0.18 percent) and retail trade (0.15 percent) sectors provided other drivers for the state’s first quarter GDP. Meantime, the state’s unemployment rate declined to 4.4 percent in June.
For the quarter, Connecticut’s GDP growth ranked behind South Carolina (2.1 percent), Oregon (1.9 percent) and Oklahoma (1.7 percent) and Georgia, New Jersey and Ohio at 1.6 percent, BEA said.
GDP rose in 48 states and the District of Columbia ranging from 3.6 percent in Washington state to a decrease of 0.6 percent in North Dakota.
Connecticut’s GDP declined for the second consecutive year in 2017 by 0.2 percent, ranking it 49th in the U.S., even though the state’s GDP rose by 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The state’s economy most recently grew in 2015, when GDP rose 1.1 percent.
