New Mexico’s private sector has been weak for years

Check out the chart below (pdf here):

It illustrates changes in private sector GDP growth over three different time periods (the last 17, 4, and 2 years). As seen in the chart, New Mexico’s private sector growth has been consistently weak over the various time periods hovering from 45th to 35th place among US states.

Certainly, there are various ways to interpret this. One is that while New Mexico’s overall economy remains stuck in the rudder in recent years, the private sector is performing reasonably-well given recent history. The current economic malaise in New Mexico seems to be as a result of changes in federal spending.

Also, it is worth noting that by and large, New Mexico’s neighbors outperform the Land of Enchantment over each of the time frames discussed. This is not a surprise given New Mexico’s poor rankings on all manner of economic freedom indices.

For example, none of New Mexico’s adjacent neighbors under-perform New Mexico in any given time period although nearby Nevada and Arizona perform somewhat poorly when the after-effects of the housing crisis are included (as in the last four years).

HT: Matt Mayer