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West Virginia showed GDP growth from 2008 to 2009
CHARLESTON -- West Virginia was among only 10 states and the District of Columbia posting growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 2008 to 2009, according to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data.
A press release from the West Virginia Department of Commerce says the GDP -- the sum of what consumers, businesses and government spend on goods and services -- grew 0.7 percent in West Virginia.
"The growth is concentrated in the service-providing industries," Joe Jarvis of WorkForce West Virginia said in the release. "We didn't suffer like some of our neighbors to the west because we don't have large amounts of the type of manufacturing that fared so terribly during the recession."
Among neighboring states in 2009, Kentucky was down 1.8 percent, Ohio posted a loss of 2.7 percent, Pennsylvania dropped 1 percent and Maryland's GDP was flat.
Leaders were Oklahoma, which showed a 6.6 percent increase, followed by Wyoming at 5.4 percent, North Dakota at 3.9 percent, Alaska at 3.5 percent, Louisiana at 2.5 percent, South Dakota at 2.2 percent and the District of Columbia at 0.8 percent. Following West Virginia in the top 10 were Arkansas at 0.6 percent, Nebraska at 0.3 percent and Virginia at 0.2 percent.
Michigan saw the greatest decline in its economy, down 5.2 percent.
