Flash Index Falls To 104.7, Reflecting Continued Economic Slowdown for Illinois

The Flash Index of the Illinois economy fell to 104.7 in July, down from 105.0 in June.  The reading indicates that that state economy continues to grow, but more slowly than before.

Fred Giertz, the Index’ compiler, says the economic slowdown in Illinois flows a national trend over the past two quarters.

The University of Illinois economist says that may be evidence that the economic recovery --- while never as strong as hoped --- is slowing down.

“We’ve been in a recovery now for almost seven years", said Giertz. "And recoveries don’t last forever.  So it may be slowing down, it’s kind of a natural maturation of the growth cycle. So a lot of things are happening and again, there’s no easy fix on these. We’d all like to have strong growth, but obviously, if that could be done easily, we would have done it already.”

The Flash Index is based on Illinois tax receipts. Girtz says state income and corporate tax receipts were down for July, while sales tax revenue was up from a year ago.