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Basic resource industry still drives Flathead economy – Harvest levels pinch wood producers

Despite some claims to the contrary, agriculture, wood products manufacturing and other basic industries remain the driving factors in Montana’s economy, a Missoula economist said on Tuesday.

Paul Polzin, director of the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, said that changes in basic industries — those businesses that primarily serve out-of-state markets and that bring in new dollars — account for most fluctuations in the state and local economies.

"It doesn’t explain everything, but basic industry is the most important determinant of both short-term and long-term trends in Montana’s and Flathead County’s economy," said Polzin, speaking to about 140 people during the annual Economic Outlook Seminar at the WestCoast Kalispell Center Hotel.

Wood products manufacturing is the largest basic industry in the valley.

By WILLIAM L. SPENCE
The Daily Inter Lake

Full Story: http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2005/02/09/news/news02.txt

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Harvest levels pinch wood producers

By LYNNETTE HINTZE
The Daily Inter Lake

With the national forest timber harvest and volume sold languishing near 50-year lows, the economic forecast for Montana’s wood-products industry is anything but rosy, a state economist said Tuesday.

Manufacturing got a better review, with a "modestly optimistic" outlook for 2005.

Charles Keegan, director of forest industry and manufacturing research at the state Bureau of Business and Economic Research, delivered the dismal news at the Economic Outlook Seminar in Kalispell.

Prices for lumber and other wood products this year may be somewhat lower than in 2004, but prices are expected to remain well above average levels for the last several years, he said.

Full Story: http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2005/02/09/news/news01.txt

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