Exports gain momentum in Utah economy

SALT LAKE CITY — As the once-reliable twins of the local economy — real estate and population growth — have faltered, a smaller but more solid sector — exports — has been picking up the slack and gaining momentum.

Despite all the hand-wringing about the U.S. trade deficit that posted an 18-month peak earlier this month as the value of imports surged and exports nationwide have been bumping along or sinking into the negative, Utah has been quietly holding its own.

"And it has three of the top 10 metro areas in our study that appear to be the beams of a new economic era that could shoulder in a new wave of jobs and innovation," said Mark Muro, a co-author of a Brookings Institution report released today stating that the Mountain West, and Salt Lake metro areas in particular, could well be the new home of national export growth and the new hope for global competition.

"Thinking exports and global markets is second nature to Utah for a number of reasons; it's part of the area's DNA at this point," Muro said in a telephone interview last week. "What our research has found in the midst of the long but now dwindling real estate-driven economy, filling a growing demand for exports will create thousands of new, good-paying jobs and could well be the new sustainable economy."

The Mountain West has 10 metro areas ready to step up, according to Brookings, the nonprofit, centrist to liberal-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C.

"The structure and lattice work for exports to grow is in place," Muro said. "The question is whether the private sector can join with city, state and federal government leaders to take full advantage of what to us looks like a golden opportunity."

American manufacturing in general has been a standout in the nascent economy, regional and national economists said earlier this month. Gains are being somewhat diminished by the European debt crisis, which has slowed growth in Europe and raised the value of the dollar 14 percent this year versus the euro. A stronger dollar against the euro makes U.S. goods costlier and less competitive in Europe, various economists told The Associated Press two weeks ago

Through May, the U.S. trade deficit is running at an annual rate of about $475 billion, up more than 25 percent from a $374.9 billion deficit for all of 2009. That had been the lowest annual trade gap since 2001, another year when the country was in recession.