Savannah Chamber

Economic Trends Brochure 2022

Issue link: http://savannah.uberflip.com/i/1444971

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 19 of 59

20 4 ensuing shutdown resulted in a direct spending decline from $2.9 billion in FY 2019 to $2.2 billion in FY 2020. Still, production recovered swiftly and prospects for 2022 are excellent, thanks in part to state incentives that help to ensure that nearly all studio space is booked and the variety of locales for on-location filming. The financial services industry also suffered during the pandemic, but several favorable trends suggest that Georgia's financial institutions will do very well in 2022. Demographic trends such as above-average population growth will help as will the upswing in residential real estate. Rising home prices favor banks' top- and bottom-line growth, but weak commercial property prices will hurt. The prospects for deposit growth are good, but an almost flat yield curve will limit financial institutions' ability to profit from borrowing short and lending long. Higher demand for many types of loans will support banks' profits. Consumers' credit scores are at decent levels and are not expected to deteriorate too much even as forbearance policies and eviction moratoriums end. Higher consumer spending will support growth of non-revolving credit, and home equity loans will rise. More auto loans will add to the bottom line, but substantially less mortgage refinancing will challenge the bottom line. Mobile banking should help traditional banks and credit unions cope with more competition from large retailers, venture capital funds, microfinance, and other nonbanks. It will take many years for the hospitality industry to fully recover from changes wrought by the pandemic, but we can make some general observations about the prospects for various segments. First, leisure travel is recovering much faster than business travel. Within the business travel segment, trips to see clients and to make sales calls are coming back fairly quickly, especially when the trips can be made by car rather than by plane or train. Second, domestic travel is coming back much faster than international travel. Third, prospects for the lodging industry vary by property type. Economy and mid-level properties that cater primarily to essential workers, construction crews, truckers, and extended-stay guests will fare best, but luxury properties catering to convention travelers, international visitors, and vacationers will not. Manufacturing Production by Georgia's manufacturers will increase more quickly than GDP, but due to productivity gains, manufacturing jobs will increase more slowly than the total number of jobs across all industries. The main impetus to growth will be recovering global demand for manufactured goods. Persistent shortages of critical inputs and other supply chain problems means there's also a need to produce more to restock stores and warehouses. Inventories will be fully restored in 2022. Of course, Covid is the main downside risk, but an escalation of the U.S.-China trade war also could endanger the projected increases in industrial production. Food processing--Georgia's largest manufacturing industry--fared relatively well during the pandemic but had to accommodate to higher sales to grocers and lower sales to restaurants and institutions. So, it is very good that many of the economic development projects announced over the last few years involved food processors such Nestle Purina, Anheuser-Busch, Frito Lay, and General Mills. Vehicle parts manufacturing will benefit from higher domestic demand for cars and trucks, but supply chain problems will limit the gains. Political pressures that encourage foreign manufacturers to invest more in American production facilities and to buy automotive parts from U.S. manufacturers will help. In addition, there are more assembly plants in the Southeast now. Effective economic development policies, low electricity and natural gas prices, rising wages and production costs in China and elsewhere are factors that support Georgia's manufacturing sector. Concerns about trade policies, product quality, and management of the risks associated with increasingly complex supply chains also make manufacturing in Georgia more attractive than manufacturing overseas. Additional factors

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Savannah Chamber - Economic Trends Brochure 2022