PROVIDENCE – In the third quarter of 2017, Rhode Island’s Gross Domestic Product rose 3.5 percent to an annual rate of $59.7 billion, seasonally adjusted, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis Wednesday.
The United States GDP grew at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the third quarter while New England GDP grew at 3.8 percent.
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Rhode Island’s GDP growth rate was No. 15 in the nation for the quarter and accounted for 0.3 percent of the total U.S. GDP, which was estimated to be an annual rate of $19.4 trillion in the July-September period.
The Ocean State’s GDP growth rate was the fourth-fastest growing GDP in New England for the quarter, behind New Hampshire (4.4 percent), Connecticut (3.9 percent), and Massachusetts (3.8 percent). Vermont GDP grew at the fifth-fastest rate in New England at 3.4 percent while Maine GDP grew the slowest of any state in the region at 3.2 percent.
Delaware GDP grew faster than any other state in Q3, rising 5.7 percent. South Dakota posted the lowest GDP growth for the quarter at 0.5 percent.
The finance and insurance sector contributed 1.36 percentage points to the Ocean State’s GDP increase of 3.5 percent, the most of any sector in the state, followed by health care and social assistance GDP, which contributed 0.44 percentage points to the total.
Both retail trade and durable goods manufacturing contributed 0.36 percentage points in the quarter, while wholesale trade added 0.3 percentage points. The information sector contributed 0.23 percentage points to the state’s growth in the third quarter, followed by a 0.2 percentage point contribution by management of companies and enterprises.
Accommodation and food service, as well as administrative and waste management services, added 0.14 percentage points to GDP in Rhode Island in the quarter. And while construction GDP added 0.12 percentage points in the quarter (the same as arts, entertainment and recreation), New England construction GDP subtracted 0.06 percentage points from the region’s third-quarter total.
The largest drags on the state economy were government, with a -0.18 percentage point contribution to Rhode Island GDP in the quarter, and nondurable goods manufacturing, with a -0.13 percentage point contribution.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor.
