While Wall Street is happy about the latest news showing inflation is starting to slow down across the country, in western Michigan, the economy is still in what researchers call a “shallow recession.”
“If we compare our statistics with those being collected at the national level, we see a pattern of economic erosion with higher interest rates around the world and the ongoing war in Ukraine, we can probably expect both our local and national statistics at the industrial level will probably continue to soften.”
That’s Brian Long, Director of Supply Chain Management at Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business. Long says the market for office furniture has continued to soften. But pent-up demand for new cars should be good news for auto parts suppliers and assembly lines.
