The federal government reported Tuesday that Maine’s economy grew at a 2 percent annual rate in the second quarter of this year.
The Gross Domestic Product - or GDP - as it’s known, is the measure of all goods and services produced in the state. Maine’s 2 percent figure was down from the 2.4 percent growth logged in the first quarter of this year. In dollars, Maine’s GDP in the second quarter was $61.006 billion.
Acting as a drag on Maine’s economic growth in the April-June quarter was the financial and insurance services sector. It slowed at a .61 percent annual rate. Construction was also off .36 percent.
The biggest contributors to economic growth were health care services, which grew at a .57 percent annual rate, the real estate sector, which was up .47 percent on an annual basis, and retail, up .35 percent.
Maine trailed the national growth rate of 2.8 percent in the second quarter, but edged the New England average of 1.9 percent.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis, which compiles the data, says mining drove the three states with the biggest percentage growth rates: North Dakota, 8.3 percent, Wyoming, 7.6 percent and Texas, 6.2 percent.
Two states actually saw their economic output shrink in the April-June quarter: Iowa, down .7 percvent on an annual basis, and South Dakota, off .3 percent.
