The weighted average of personal income, consumer spending, and corporate earnings shakes out at 104.9 for January, up from 104.6 in December. 100 is the break-even point between growth and contraction.
What’s more, “January has been a very optimistic month in terms of the financial markets, and the stock market’s gone up substantially, and things seem to be looking better,” says study author Fred Giertz. “Illinois may be ahead of the other parts of the country, largely because we weren’t impacted by some negative things; Hurricane Sandy didn’t have much of an impact here.”
Giertz is an economics professor who is also director of the U of I’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs.
(posted 6:21 a.m. 02/04/2013 by Alex Degman)