Two Of Nation’s Fastest And Slowest Growing Economies Are In Louisiana

Two of the country’s fastest growing economies are in Louisiana, according to numbers from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. Baton Rouge grew by over 5% and Lake Charles grew by about 8%. LSU Economist Dr. Loren Scott says right now, Lake Charles has almost $100 billion in industrial announcements.

“In a really good year, in the past, if we would’ve found 5 billion across the entire state, we would’ve thought that was great. We have 100 billion just in one place.”

Scott says Baton Rouge has about $10 billion in projects. He says these growths are primarily going on in the chemical industry and the liquefied natural gas export sector.

“That growth is occurring for two reasons, number one, there has been a big decline in the price of natural gas but the most important thing is that the price of natural gas dropped here, it did not drop in Europe and it did not drop in Asia.”

The numbers released show Houma-Thibodaux has the nation’s second worst economy, shrinking nearly 8% and Lafayette shrunk 4%. Scott says these drops are linked to the oil bust. He says back in 2014, there were about 56 rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico, now there are less than 15.

“Where the decline is taking place, it’s primarily either in the actual oil and gas firms themselves or in the service industries that work for the oil and gas industry.”