KINGSTON – While not a sign the state’s economy is out of its recession yet, University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro’s Current Conditions Index for July “points to Rhode Island having at long last broken out of the rut it was stuck in for most the past two years.”
The CCI registered a reading of 25 in July fell below June’s reading of 42, but is markedly improved from the readings all of last year, which oscillated between 0 and 8.
Lardaro noted in his release today that the state’s economic momentum, which he had identified in May, continued, with three of the index’s indicators – U.S. consumer sentiment, manufacturing wage and the size of the labor force – turning in positive numbers for July. It was the third month in a row that the CCI beat readings from the same 2008 month, although Lardaro was quick to note that the readings from last year are not a particularly high threshold to exceed.
In fact, he noted that “Rhode Island continues along in the process of recovery, as its economy declines at slower rates.”
