Rapid City outpaces Sioux Falls with GDP growth - KOTA Territory News

Rapid City outpaces Sioux Falls with GDP growth

Economic indicators show Rapid City has gained an edge on the biggest city in the state.
 
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports Rapid City's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased 1.9 percent in 2011. 

Meanwhile, the national average among the nation's 366 metropolitan areas was 1.6 percent.

Sioux Falls saw a smaller increase of .9 percent in the same period.

Although the Rapid City economy ranked 272nd among the nation's metropolitan areas, the area's growth rate placed 103rd. 

Local Economic experts say four sectors contributed the most to the region's economic growth: natural resources and mining (up 0.46 percent), financial activities (up 0.42 percent), government (up 0.34 percent), professional and business services (up 0.27 percent), and trade (up 0.26 percent). Declining sectors included transportation and utilities (down 0.30 percent) and information (down 0.12 percent). 

But, some say, we've still got a long way to go when compared to the rest of the nation.
 
"We didn't hit the big loses that other communities did, but as the nation recovers, we're also not seeing the tremendous growth other areas are, except for the Bakken Oil fields for example. The growth has been fairly modest," said 
 
The Gross Domestic Product, a calculation of the total value of products each worker contributes to the area, is considered a key economic indicator.