KELOLAND’s Economic Outlook For 2013

If you could look into a crystal ball and see what ups and downs our economy will experience throughout the next 12 months, it could make you pretty rich.

While looking into the future isn't available for most of us, University of Sioux Falls Economic Professor Lorri Halverson says the way we can tell the future is by looking into the past.

"The best thing we have is the data we have right now and when we look at that data, we look at it from the historical perceptive," Halverson said.

Halverson says South Dakota's economy has many strengths going into the New Year. Coming out of 2012, the national economy saw growth in job numbers. Halverson says there is not much change to job numbers in the Rushmore State, but that's a good thing.

"We haven't seen the huge job hits and unemployment reductions that we're seeing in some of the other areas across the United States," Halverson said.
    
There's also the question over the national debt. Halverson says since it wasn't dealt with when Congress passed a bill to avoid the fiscal cliff, this year the debt ceiling could come to the forefront.
 
"There is a limit on how much more we can borrow. There is a limit on how much a federal government can spend based on the money we have coming in based on tax revenue," Halverson said. 

Going into 2013, many may ask the question of what if. What would happen if there was another drought in KELOLAND? What would happen if there was another natural disaster? Halverson says you can't calculate that until it happens.

"Plan and do the best that we can in terms of our business and personal planning around the realities that exist today," Halverson said.

No matter how you shake it, we don't know what's going to happen in 2013 but for where we are, we now have a little more insight.