Wyoming Economist: June Economic Report ‘Pretty Good’
Senior Wyoming economist Jim Robinson says the latest report on Wyoming's economy contains more good news than bad news.
The Wyoming Insight report for June shows that with 11 of the 12 months of Fiscal Year 2018 in the books, overall state sales and use tax collections were up by a little over 18 percent. All but four Wyoming counties (Crook, Washakie, Goshen and Weston counties) were showing increases compared to Fiscal Year 2017. Sales and use tax collections are often considered one of the best gauges of economic health since they are collected on all formal business transactions.
Robinson says more good economic news was found in natural gas prices, which averaged $2.33 per million British Thermal Units [MMBTu] in June, compared to $1.85 per MMBTu in May. The one bit of bad news in the report was oil prices, which declined from an average May price of $69.98 per barrel to $65.98 last month for West Texas Intermediate Crude.
But, even with the decline, last month's average crude oil price was still almost $21 higher than the average for the same grade of crude oil in June of 2017.