SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The state’s economy “improved” to a neutral value of 50 in May, reported University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro in his latest Current Conditions Index, but shows a “troubling trend” of not exceeding that value in three months.
Released on July 11, the May 2016 CCI shows an eight-point increase from April’s corrected value of 42, a contraction value.
In a year-over-year comparison, the CCI has dropped 17 points since May 2015.
In May the state’s unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points, and Lardaro equated the drop to “downshifting from third, potentially into second gear.”
The pause in declining cyclical momentum, Lardaro said, led to last month’s good news: a 0.7 percent increase in total manufacturing hours and a 2.6 percent increase in the manufacturing wage; a “sharp” 19.4 percent rise in single-unit permits after a 15 percent decline in 2015; and a 4.8 percent rise in U.S. consumer sentiment occurring in May – ending five months of consecutive declines. •
