Purdue University North Central's College of Business along with the Greater La Porte and Michigan City Area Chambers of Commerce hosted Economic Outlook La Porte County, providing an in-depth look at the current and future economic outlook for La Porte County and current economic trends.
Two speakers were invited to provide lectures based on their areas of expertise. Associate Professor of Economics Dr. Derek Bjonback and Indiana University Northwest professor of the School of Business and Economics K. Surekha Rao both provided lectures and research results based on current economic trends and potential future outlooks.
"The US economy has experienced a slow economic expansion in real GDP for almost 6 years now," said Bjonback. "The economy is expected to increase the rate of growth to 2.7% per year from the previous 2.1%."
Bjonback also remarked that the unemployment rate is approaching 5% which is considered to be full employment. Despite this, Bjonback confirmed that there is no danger of inflation with both historic lows in inflation with energy prices and the US dollar expected to stabilize and continuing slack in the labor market, leaving room for lower unemployment.
"When the nation's economy fell, it only fell 5%," said Bjonback. "Our economy declined 15%, which is not uncommon for counties based in the manufacturing economy. We can still come back due to a sustainable base."
Bjonback stated that in terms of the big picture, the outlook is optimistic about the GDP growing due to real business investment and personal investment.
Rao discussed trends and patterns of exports in La Porte, Lake, and Porter Counties as well as Northwest Indiana concerning industries that drive exports for La Porte and all of Northwest Indiana.
"NWi exports are on the rise since 2000," said Rao. "NWI suffered a setback during the crisis, but our exports recouped since 2009, along with La Porte County, we are back to pre-crisis level and higher."
Indiana's current GDP ranks as 16th in the country with its dependency on exports ranking 11 in the county. Two-thirds of Northwest Indiana's exports relies on manufacturing such as metal and machinery manufacturing, similar to a majority of La Porte and Michigan City's exports.
To close out the presentation, Rao discussed trading partners with Northwest Indiana. Canada and Mexico, being the largest trading partners for Indiana and Northwest Indiana, present plenty of opportunities for growth along with opportunity in emerging markets such as India and South Africa, whose trade has grown by 100% with Indiana over the past decade.
"International trade is important for economic growth and jobs with free trade helping export growth and economic growth," said Rao. "Trade sanctions can damage export growth so we should be looking to newer markets for future growth."