UT Boyd Center report shows consumer spending has pushed GDP to pre-pandemic levels
A new report revealed a surge in consumer spending this year helped boost the state’s inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP).
The “Economic Report to the Governor of the State of Tennessee” was released by the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), and showed that the GDP grew by 5.6 percent in 2021 and is projected to grow by another 4.2 percent in 2022. Federal stimulus checks and the distribution of vaccines helped boost the confidence of consumers, allowing for the return of many in-person services.
“The economic recovery has been incredibly strong so far, and the Tennessee economy seems to be on solid footing,” said Larry Kessler, Research Associate Professor in the Boyd Center and Project Director for the 2022 “Economic Report to the Governor of the State of Tennessee.” “Real GDP has already recovered to pre-pandemic levels due to a strong surge in consumer spending. Employment in the state has been a little slower to recover, but we expect job levels to recover by the first half of 2022.”
The report provides a look at the recovery of the labor market in Tennessee and projects that the state will be at pre-pandemic levels by the second quarter of 2022. It also looks at numbers from the 2020 Census, and how growth will impact the economic outlook of Tennessee.
Read more in this article from UTK, and find the full report here.
