Inflation outstrips rise in Isle income
By Greg Wiles
Advertiser Staff Writer
|
||
 |
|
|
Hawai'i residents lost ground last year as inflation grew at a faster pace than personal income.
A report released yesterday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis shows Hawai'i's per-capita personal income rate rose to $40,490 in 2008, a 3.2 percent increase.
While the gain was higher than personal income growth nationally, it still was below the 4.3 percent inflation rate charted in Honolulu last year.
"We know inflation slowed down some throughout the year, but the income slowed down faster," said Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawai'i Economic Research Organization.
He said a lot of the slowing in income growth came in the second half of the year, when unemployment rose and earnings from Wall Street investments took a hit. Overall, the new personal income numbers contain good and bad news for the state. Personal income includes earnings from all sources, including wages, salaries, dividend income, investment earnings and rental income.
The income numbers also showed:
Bonham said Hawai'i's income numbers would have been worse if not for a sizable increase in unemployment insurance and other public assistance payments during the year as jobless numbers rose.
"That shouldn't be too much of a surprise," Bonham said. He said most sectors of the economy showed declines in income aside from government, education and healthcare.
A further decline in inflation-adjusted personal income is forecast this year. UHERO's economists have projected it will decline 2.5 percent this year, followed by a 0.2 percent decline in 2010.
Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.
