The federal government is out with new figures showing how fast Maine's metropolitan area economies grew in 2017. The Bureau of Economic Analysis figures show that the economies in southern Maine's metro areas grew faster last year.
Portland-South Portland's Gross Domestic Product grew 1.7 percent. Lewiston-Auburn's grew 1.4 percent. Bangor's Gross Domestic Product also grew, but by only 0.9 percent.
Among the economic sectors that contributed most to growth were finance and real estate, trade, and professional and business services. In Bangor, education, health and social services stood out as drivers of economic growth.
Measured in dollars, Portland-South Portland's economy produced $32 billion in goods and services last year, Bangor just over $6 billion, and Lewiston-Auburn about $4.2 billion.
That ranked Portland 84th among metropolitan areas in the U.S. Bangor was ranked 280th, Lewiston-Auburn 352nd.
