The Lone Growth States for First Half of 2022: Texas and Tennessee

By SBE Council at 30 September, 2022, 6:17 pm

by Raymond J. Keating –

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis just updated its estimate of second quarter U.S. GDP, while also offering its estimate of GDP growth by state.

Matters didn’t improve for U.S. GDP with this latest update. Instead, the U.S. economy still shrank by 0.6 percent (annual rate) in the second quarter, as was the case in the previous estimate, which followed a decline of 1.6 percent in the first quarter.

As for the states, real GDP declined in the second quarter in 40 states. While Texas performed best by growing at a rate of +1.8 percent, Wyoming performed worst at -4.8 percent.

If we look at the first two quarters of this year, only two states experienced positive growth in each quarter.

Texas grew by 0.5 percent in the first quarter of 2022 followed by the 1.8 percent in the second quarter. And Tennessee’s economy expanded by 3.7 percent in the first quarter and 0.3 percent in the second.

At the other end of the GDP spectrum, 20 states saw their economies decline in each of the first two quarters of this year.

While elected official and the Federal Reserve work to further undermine the economy, and various talking heads and experts speculate on the possibility of recession, these numbers make clear that the recession is real and it’s been going on for months now – well, except in Texas and Tennessee.

By the way, it’s probably worth noting that Texas has no state income taxes whatsoever and Tennessee has no state individual income tax.

Raymond J. Keating is chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. His latest book is The Weekly Economist: 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist.