The overall U.S. economy might not be as bound for a recession in 2023 as the mainstream media has warned much of this year. But the freight economy might have to start the new year working its way out of a hole.
If you watch cable news, you’ll see and hear much economic negativity going into 2023. But FTR Transportation Intelligence analysts aren’t as sour on the future as the talking heads filling up space on your TV.
“We get questioned a lot about why aren’t we more negative than we are,” Todd Tranausky, FTR’s VP of rail and intermodal, said during his firm’s December State of Freight webcast. “Yes, there’s slow growth, but we don’t have a recession in our forecast. It never turns negative again.”
Citing real GDP quarterly changes on record, FTR tracked negative growth in the first two quarters of 2022, followed by 2.6% growth in Q3. Its forecast sees growth between 0.8% and 1.6% over the next five…
