CLICK HERE. / " title="THE Current Conditions Index rose to 58 in December, up from 50 in November and 42 in October. The index last peaked at 58 between June and September. For a larger version of this image, CLICK HERE. /"/>SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Rhode Island’s economy resumed its expansion in December, University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro said as his economic index climbed to match its highest level of 2010.
And Lardaro said upcoming employment data revisions might show that the state’s recovery has “more strength and momentum than recent reports indicate.”
Lardaro’s Current Conditions Index rose to 58 in December, up from 50 in November and 42 in October. The index last peaked at 58 between June and September.
“My greatest fears were that either this recovery would stall or worse yet, end abruptly moving us back to where we clearly don’t want to be,” Lardaro said in his monthly report released Monday. “The December Current Conditions Index reading restored my faith on this front for now at least.”
Lardaro’s index uses a dozen national and local economic indicators to track the state’s economic performance. A reading below 50 indicates economy contraction while above it signifies expansion.
December’s 58 reading was a significantly higher than the 33 recording a year earlier. Lardaro said seven of the 12 indicators improved compared with December 2009, including single-family house permits, retail sales, total manufacturing hours, manufacturing wage, unemployment rate and unemployment benefit exhaustion.
Meanwhile, five labor-market indicators posted poorer numbers compared with a year earlier: employment services jobs (a leading indicator), private-sector service jobs and government jobs, as well as the size of the labor force and new unemployment-benefit claims.
“Through December, the available labor market data point to a very fragile state economy,” Lardaro said. “The potentially good news is that revisions to the recent data will be released soon. Typically, in the early stages of recoveries, revisions are higher, so things weren’t as bad as they had appeared to be. I expect that to be the case this time.”
