Indiana University economists predict a robust year for Indiana‘s economy as the state and nation shake off the last remnants of the recession.
The annual Indiana Business Research Center forecast predicts three-percent growth in Indiana‘s economy, with a projected 52,000 new jobs lowering the unemployment rate to 5.2%, half a point better than the current level.
Research director Timothy Slaper says that forecast isn‘t unusually high.
He says it‘s the level of bounceback one would normally expect in the aftermath of a recession.
Slaper says what‘s unusual this time is that it took so long after the recession to reach that level.
He says Indiana‘s growth is expected to run a fraction behind the nation, because the state has already gotten the benefit of national trends.
"2010 was kind of evidence of a manufacturing recovery, not a housing recovery, not a services recovery, and obviously not a finance recovery," says Slaper. "Now that it's broadened, that boost kind of dissipates."
Slaper says inflation in 2015 will remain close to its present level of two-percent, due in large part to lower energy prices.
And he says while the housing market should be stronger next year, it is unrealistic to think that it will return to pre-recession levels.