Economists from Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business gave the 2022 forecast Wednesday morning, and predicting that 2021’s big concerns---the lack of workers, the rising costs of goods, supply chain issues, inflation and the pandemic—will continue in 2022, creating a strong level of uncertainty in where the economy might be heading in the next 12 months.
“Anybody spend any time trying to chase down product that didn’t arrive? Anybody spend anytime worrying about inflation? Anybody have any problem having workers being poached because you couldn’t pay them enough? All of those things, are going to be things that are with you this year.”
Dr. Paul Isely, is Professor of Economics and Associate Dean, at the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University. He says one thing is for certain with this year’s economy:
“It’s going to slow down this year, because of prices, interest rates, wages, and we are going to continue to have supply chain problems, certainly through the first half of this year,” Isley said. That is going to slow our growth down from nearly six percent right now, to probably here in West Michigan to the two-three percent range,” he said.
One key finding that will make the economy slow down he says is the continuing rise of inflation. While prices are expected to increase by 5.9% - 7.3% for 2022, wages are only expected to increase by 4.4% - 5.2% for 2022, not enough to keep up.
