New Wyoming Economic Report Shows Mostly Good News
Senior Wyoming Economist Jim Robinson says the Wyoming Insight economic report for September contains mostly good news for Wyoming's economy.
That included crude oil prices that averaged 69.49 per barrel in September, up from an average of $67.99 the month before. Robinson also pointed to the fact that the state's 4 percent sales tax collections for the first two months of Fiscal Year 2019 are running 14 percent ahead of the same period in FY 2018.
The fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30, and sales tax collections are generally considered one of the best measurements of overall economic health since they are levied on all official business transactions. One possible concern in the report is natural gas prices, which declined slightly from August to September.
But Robinson said Friday the decline was probably too small to have a big impact on the overall state economy. Wyoming natural gas averaged $2.32 per MMBtu (million British thermal units) at Opal in September, compared to $2.54 per MMBtu in August.