Providence-Warwick area ranks No. 199 in GDP growth

THE U.S. BUREAU OF ECONOMIC Analysis ranked the Providence-Warwick area No. 199 for real gross domestic product growth in 2013. / COURTESY OF BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
THE U.S. BUREAU OF ECONOMIC Analysis ranked the Providence-Warwick area No. 199 for real gross domestic product growth in 2013. / COURTESY OF BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

PROVIDENCE – Real gross domestic product grew in 292 of the nation’s 381 metropolitan areas last year, but the Providence-Warwick area saw a slowdown in the growth rate for the period, according to information released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on Tuesday.
The Providence-Warwick area posted a 1.3 percent increase in real GDP growth for 2013, which is slightly less than the increase of 1.4 percent posted in 2012. That landed the area at No. 199 among the U.S. metros, with Mount Vernon-Anacortes, Wash., coming in first with 10.6 percent growth from a 2.3 percent decline the previous year, and Peoria, Ill., coming in last with a 6.8 percent decline in real GDP.
“[Rhode Island’s rate] wasn’t the fastest, and it wasn’t the slowest. It’s a little slower than 2012 … It’s fairly steady growth,” agency spokesman Thomas Dail told Providence Business News.
Real GDP is adjusted for inflation, he explained.
The largest contributor to GDP growth in Rhode Island was professional and business services at 0.54 percent, followed by finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing, with 0.41 percent. Educational services, health care and social assistance had 0.23 percent growth.
Rhode Island’s information industry was hardest hit in 2013, with real gross domestic product dropping 0.22 percent.
In comparison, the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts-New Hampshire area posting an increase of 1.6 percent in GDP for 2013. But the prior year, real GDP for that area grew 2.5 percent. That area came in at No. 178 in the ranking.

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