Minnesota records third slowest GDP growth nationally in Q2:2024

Last week, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released data for state Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2024. It showed that:

Real gross domestic product increased in 49 states and the District of Columbia in the second quarter of 2024, with the percent change ranging from 5.9 percent at an annual rate in Idaho to –1.1 percent in Alaska…

In the second quarter of 2024, real GDP for the nation grew at an annual rate of 3.0 percent. 

Happily, Minnesota was one of the 49 states where real GDP grew. But Minnesota’s GDP grew by just 1.1% (annualized) in inflation adjusted terms from the first to the second quarter of this year, a rate below that in 47 other states and the District of Columbia, as Figure 1 shows.

Figure 1: Real GDP growth, Q1:2024 to Q2:2024

We have noted Minnesota’s relatively slow growing economy several times in recent months. Figure 2 puts this into some context, showing GDP growth since 2019 to capture the impact of and recovery from COVID-19. We see that Minnesota’s economy was 6.6% larger in inflation adjusted terms in the second quarter of 2024 than in 2019, a rate of growth slower than in 38 other states.

Figure 2: Real GDP growth, 2019 to Q2:2024

With our regular reports on Minnesota’s economy, we eventually exhausted our thesaurus for synonyms for “slow.” We may need to recycle some of the old ones because the problem remains.