MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- Tennessee exports set a new record high in the second quarter, but a mid-state economist calls export growth “anemic.”
Dr. Steven Livinston is an export specialist with the Business and Economic Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
Livingston says Tennessee exports surpassed $8 billion for the first time in the second quarter of this year. One Tennessean in five depends on exports for employment.
Livingston says the second quarter’s export growth rate of 1.3 percent was disappointing.
“2011, 2012 there was pretty solid export growth, and you could say it was really helping out the American economy, whereas right now it’s really not growing any faster than the American economy.”
Livingston says a troubling drop in exports to Canada accounts for much of the decline.
On the plus side, he says exports to China, the Netherlands and South Korea all showed marked improvement.