Katie Berry and Moira Gallagher of McKinley Research Group deliver the annual business confidence index for the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation.
The Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) reports lower business confidence in its annual survey, even as key indicators like jobs and building permits hold steady.
“If we put together AEDC bingo cards today, I think the word ‘uncertainty’ would be the free space. If you brought your own bingo card, go ahead and put that one in,” quipped Katie Berry, president of McKinley Research Group, which prepared the economic update. Berry presented the results to a packed luncheon at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center.
First the Bad News
To explain the uncertainty, keynote speaker Mary C. Daly pointed out that Anchorage’s economy, like Alaska more broadly, is driven by outside forces. “Economic fortunes are more closely tied to global things, like commodity prices, and to federal spending plans, which are typically not on a business cycle frequency,” observed Daly, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco…