Bank failures and a housing market collapse made economic headlines for the southeast over the last few years. But in an outlook for 2011 released this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, economists see a bright future in manufacturing.
Georgia leads the nation with 51 bank failures since August of 2008. Florida’s housing sector has fallen hard. But Fed senior economist Julie Hotchkiss says cars, particularly those built in Tennessee, could help the region recover in 2011.
“As unusual as it might sound, automobile manufacturing could prove to be quite a boon for the Southeast in the coming years.”
Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga comes online this year, with the capacity to produce 150,000 vehicles annually and employ 2,000 workers. Toyota also has a new plant in Mississippi. And Nissan starts producing its electric car in Smyrna starting in 2012.
Even with the manufacturing boost, the Atlanta Fed expects restrained growth in the region because of continued weakness in residential and commercial real estate. The bank’s forecasters also find consumers and businesses still aren’t spending like they were before the recession started.
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