Report: snowstorms in February slowed, but didn’t derail Mass.

MASSBENCHMARKS, the journal of the Massachusetts economy, said severe snowstorms in February temporarily slowed the Massachusetts economy, but do not appear to have derailed it.
MASSBENCHMARKS, the journal of the Massachusetts economy, said severe snowstorms in February temporarily slowed the Massachusetts economy, but do not appear to have derailed it.

BOSTON – The severe snowstorms in February temporarily slowed the Massachusetts economy, but do not appear to have derailed the “healthy expansion” that the state has experienced in recent quarters, according to the latest MassBenchmarks brief.

Still, the cost of the economic losses is expected to be approximately $1 billion from the storms, even though the board wrote that the precise amount is difficult to estimate reliably.

MassBenchmarks is the journal of the Massachusetts economy and is published by the UMass Donahue Institute in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

The editorial board wrote in the brief that “selected sectors” of the economy have been adversely affected by storms, especially in cases in which economic activity has been permanently lost, such as on Valentine’s Day when dinner reservations were canceled due to a storm and were likely not made up later.

- Advertisement -

However, the brief said that automobile purchases postponed on President’s Day likely will be made up when the weather permits.

“And some sectors of the economy benefited from the storms, including snow removal services, roofing contractors, plumbers, and even some Boston hotels that registered high occupancy rates when critical health care workers felt compelled to stay overnight in Boston in the absence of reliable public transportation,” the brief states.

Overall, the editorial board expects that the negative effects on the state economy will be “relatively small and transient.” A disproportionate impact will be felt on low-income workers who are paid by the hour and do not get paid when they do not work, however.

“The prospects for a continuing expansion are good,” the board wrote. “In 2014, the U.S. economy had its best year since before the financial crisis, and national forecasters are generally expecting steady growth in 2015. The state’s high-technology sector, which helped protect the state from the worst of the recession, continues to do well and has been steadily adding high-paying jobs.”

The board noted several long-term challenges, as the “historic” winter weather highlighted the “vulnerability of the state’s public transportation system.”

“The scale of the commonwealth’s transportation challenges extends well beyond the MBTA and includes roads, bridges and regional transit systems in every corner of the state,” the board wrote.

No posts to display