UNC Charlotte economist Dr. John Connaughton
CHARLOTTE – North Carolina’s economy, which during the last nine months experienced its sharpest decline since the Great Depression, will recover, potentially as soon as 2021. That’s according to John Connaughton, PhD, he Barings Professor of Financial Economics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who delivered the Barings/UNC Charlotte Economic Forecast virtually Thursday.
There are two countervailing factors that make forecasting North Carolina’s economic recovery challenging, said Connaughton: how quickly a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available and the willingness of Americans to take a COVID-19 vaccine.
“At the end of the day, it is ultimately people who will decide their risk to re-engage in the economy,” Connaughton said. “That remains to be seen.”