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Lower Fuel Prices Could Mean Economic Boost For Kansas

Chip Bennett
/
Flickr

 

A recent report from Creighton University indicates that a nine state Midwestern region will see a boost to their economies in the first half of 2015. As KMUW’s Sean Sandefur reports, Kansas is leading the pack…

 

Kansas scored a 62.6 percent on the Purchasing Management Index. What does that mean? Well, the survey works by going directly to businesses and asking them to provide data about wages, production and sales. The results are scored 0 to 100--if you score above 50, your economy is thought to be growing. Ernie Goss, a professor of economics at Creighton University, says lower fuel prices will be beneficial to Kansas.

Credit Creighton University
Professor Ernie Goss

“The lower fuel prices seem to be stimulating growth more in Kansas than in the other states,” Goss says. “You have a large aircraft manufacturing sector (in Kansas), and when you see lower fuel prices, that does seem to stimulate that industry. And I think that's what we're going to see for 2015.”

Goss says the telecommunication industry in Johnson County will also provide a big boost and that lower fuel prices will be welcomed by those in agriculture, who’ve seen falling crop prices due to drought.

The eight other states in the report, which included Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota saw a collective Purchasing Management Index of 54.4. Goss says that fuel prices can have a negative impact on some states, specifically Oklahoma, one of the nation’s top oil producers.