Head of Mpls. Fed says state is poised well for recovery

Minnesota is ahead of the nation in recovering from the recession, said the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and he expects that to continue.

The state's workforce is among the best educated in the nation and Minnesota's housing market did not endure as great a boom and bust as many states' housing markets did, Narayana Kocherlakota said.

Minnesota has outpaced the nation in personal income growth, employment, the strength of its housing market and other economic measures.

He expects the U.S. economy will grow at a 2.5 percent to 3 percent rate this year and next. Kocherlakota spoke Tuesday morning at his first local news briefing since he took the helm at the Minneapolis Fed in 2009.

"This estimate is consistent with the long-run growth track of the United States," Kocherlakota said. "Over a long period of time, real GDP grows at around 2.5 to 3 percent. And it's slightly faster than the 1.6 percent rate we saw in 2011."

Kocherlakota expects U.S. unemployment will fall slowly from its current level of 8.3 percent to about 7 percent by the end of next year.

Minnesota's economy has not returned to full health, or levels similar to near the end of 2007, Kocherlakota said, but he believes that the state economy is further along the recovery path than the national economy.

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