Rural Mainstreet Index

Rural Mainstreet Index

Last week, Creighton University released its monthly Rural Mainstreet Index which provides results of surveying bank CEOS in rural areas of a 10-state region dependent on agriculture and/or energy.

For the past two months, the Index has remained above the 50.0 threshold which represents growth neutral. Prior to May, the last time the overall index was at or above growth neutral was August of 2015.

The farmland and ranchland-price index for June increased to 40.0, its highest level since September of last year — up from May's 36.4. Though that is a positive increase — it is the 43rd straight month the index has been below the 50.0 growth neutral mark.

Addressing the lag of Rural America behind the rest of the country's economic improvement, the special Task Force on Ag and Rural Prosperity met on Thursday. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue says that measuring the effects of the Task Force Working Groups will be important

Perdue: "We'll will have measurements. How do you whether you are going to be successful? We're talking about a broad, subjective area of rural prosperity. What are the measurements of that? So absolutely, we want the measurements of moving from here to here — certainly the trajectory and the trend of where you go is just as important as how far you go. We want metrics to help and guide us. I will expect metrics in all of those working groups."

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