Baton Rouge and four other Louisiana metropolitan areas rank in the nation’s top 25 for largest increases in gross domestic product for 2009, according to a report released Feb. 23 by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Baton Rouge had a 3.4 percent increase, earning the city a ranking of 23rd in the country. Shreveport ranked fourth in the nation with a 13.6 percent increase, New Orleans ranked eighth with an 8.6 percent increase, Lake Charles increased 7.5 percent and ranked 10th, and Lafayette had a 4.6 percent increase and ranked 18th.
According to the study data, Louisiana saw a 2.5 percent increase in GDP between 2008 and 2009, which puts the state fifth nationally.
Ryan Bilbo, assistant director of the Division of Economic Development in the E.J. Ourso College of Business, said the state increase in GDP could be caused by natural growth. Bilbo said many factors would have to be examined to determine the cause of growth.
Baton Rouge’s GDP increased from $38.9 billion in 2008 to $39.7 billion in 2009, according to the data.
Manufacturing accounted for $10.7 billion of Baton Rouge’s nearly $40 billion GDP, said Thomas Dale, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Dale said natural resources and mining accounted for 0.35 percentage points of Baton Rouge’s GDP.
Dale said companies are lumped together in categories, like manufacturing, to prevent disclosing confidential information. For instance, if there are only a few big players in an industry, information could be determined based on the report.
“We don’t want people to identify individual company information from our reports,” Dale said.
Bilbo said he believes the increase in GDP will improve employment in the Baton Rouge area, especially in the state’s large chemical manufacturing industry.
Natural resources and mining accounted for significant growth in several Louisiana areas, especially in the Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area, where it contributed more than 10 percentage points, Dale said.
Dale said non-durable goods, like cars, food and clothing, which are produced to be consumed, significantly aided the growth in areas like Lake Charles.
 
—-
Contact Celeste Ansley at [email protected]