The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s state coincident indexes in February continue to show widespread growth across the nation. Over the three months since November 49 states reported growth, with Montana and West Virginia both increasing 3 percent (Alaska edged down marginally). led by a nearly 3 percent rise in Montana. Five other states had increases above 2 percent, and only 3 (other than Alaska) had gains of less than 1 percent. The independently estimated national figure of 1.5 percent growth over this period was consistent with the state numbers.
Over the last 12 months 7 states registered gains higher than 10 percent, led by Nevada’s 16.2 percent (Hawaii was also in this group) and New York and California were again also members. The 6.2 percent national figure seems a bit lower than the individual state reports might have suggested; all of the 4 largest states (California, Texas, New York and Florida) had gains higher than that.
49 states report an increase from January to February, with Alaska again being the exception. Both Maryland and West Virginia were up 1.4 percent.