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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Prediction: Volatile But Improving Conditions for Manufacturing

02/14/2008
The Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI is forecasting that inflation-adjusted growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will slow to 1.3 percent in 2008 before rising to 2.5 percent in 2009. The organization's Quarterly Economic Forecast also predicts that GDP growth will slow to an average of 0.6 percent in the first half of 2008. Additionally, the group estimates that manufacturing production growth will slow to an estimated 0.5 percent in 2008, but a solid upswing to 3.4 percent should follow in 2009. But export growth is expected to continue through 2008 and into 2009, with an 8.1 percent rise in 2008 and a 9.9 percent rise in 2009. "The U.S. trade imbalance with the rest of the world is beginning to unwind and the additional foreign demand for U.S. products and services will particularly benefit the manufacturing industry," says Daniel J. Meckstroth, the group's chief economist.

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