95.3 / 88.5 FM Grand Rapids and 95.3 FM Muskegon
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Forget a recession, 2020 economy will remain strong, says forecasters

Downtown Grand Rapids photo
Wikimedia | Grguy2011

Despite economists predicting that a recession should have hit West Michigan by now, the economy is strong and will remain strong in 2020. That’s according to regional development organization The Right Place, which hosted its annual economic outlook for West Michigan Wednesday morning at the Amway Grand Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids. 

2019 marks the end of a 3-year-strategic plan for the Right Place, and not only did the organization meet the goals it set for itself, the end result was better than expected.  

Tracking against The Right Place’s 2017-2019 3-year strategic plan, the organization has spurred the creation of 5,192 new and retained jobs, on a goal of 4,200.

With a goal of $150 million in new and retained payroll, the Right Place ended with over double at $309 million and with a goal of $500 million in new capital investment, the Right Place brought in nearly $800 million far exceeding its expectations.

Economist Jim Robey is with the W.E. Upjohn Institute and gave the 2020 West Michigan economic forecast Tuesday. He says despite the earlier predictions of a recession hitting in 2019, the economy is strong, and will remain strong in 2020.

“The reality is if you look at gdp forecasts from a number of sources…the fundamentals of the economy are in place,” Robey said. “Certainly from our read of it the next year or two should be good.”

Robey saids however, that the economy will slow down some over the next two years, but still far from the recession that so many economists were predicting just two years ago.

Related Content