In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Kansas economy grew at the annual rate of 4.0 percent. GDP grew in all states, with Kansas performing in the middle.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Kansas economy grew at the annual rate of 4.0 percent in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars, according to statistics released this week by Bureau of Economic Analysis, a division of the United States Department of Commerce. This comes after contraction of 30.3 percent in the second quarter and growth of 34.3 percent in the third quarter, in annualized terms.
GDP in Kansas for the quarter was at the annual rate of $178,346 million in current dollars. The fourth quarter consists of October, November, and December.
This the fourth quarter of data to be affected by the response to the pandemic, as BEA noted in the release accompanying the data:
The increases in fourth-quarter GDP by state reflect both the continued economic recovery from the sharp declines earlier in the year and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including new restrictions and closures that took effect in some areas of the United States. The annual 2020 estimates of GDP by state reflect the rapid shifts in activity, as business and schools switched to remote work, consumers and businesses canceled, restricted, or redirected their spending, governments issued and lifted “stay-at-home” orders and government pandemic assistance payments were distributed to households and businesses. The full economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in the GDP by state estimates because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified.
The Kansas rate of 4.0 percent ranked twenty-ninth among the states. The national rate was 4.3 percent, with the rate for the Plains states at 5.5 percent. (For this data, BEA defines Plains states as Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.)
Over the last eight quarters, Kansas has averaged quarterly growth rates of 1.4 percent in annual terms. For the nation, the rate was 1.3 percent. For the Plains states, it was 1.4 percent.
In the table of industries, we see that Kansas industries that grew significantly are Agriculture, Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and Administrative services.
For the complete release at BEA, click on Gross Domestic Product by State, 4th Quarter 2020 and Annual 2020 (Preliminary).
I have developed an interactive visualization of this data. To access, click on Visualization: Quarterly Real Gross Domestic Product by state and industry.