Yesterday, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released their latest State Coincident Index for November 2008.  The data shows a deepening of Maine’s economic recession.  Maine’s index has fallen 2.94 percent to 141.94 in November 2008 from 146.23 in November 2007–the second largest drop in New England.  The largest drop belongs to Rhode Island at -5.59 percent followed by Vermont (-1.81 percent) and Connecticut (-0.94 percent).

Only two states showed positive gain:  New Hampshire (0.86 percent) and Massachusetts (0.32 percent).  However, only New Hampshire is still showing growth on a month-to-month basis.  While Massachusetts’ index is still higher than their November 2007 index; their index has been steadily falling since reaching the peak in April 2008.

As Maine’s new Legislature begins business in January, this latest data shows that they should be prepared for more bad news on the economic and, correspondingly, the revenue front.  Click “continue reading” to view chart.


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