WASHINGTON, July 6 (Xinhua) -- As the U.S. economy is heading into the ninth year of expansion, some parts of the country are still lagging behind, Bloomberg cited the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) as saying on Thursday.
Five U.S. states of Arizona, Connecticut, Mississippi, Nevada and Wyoming are still below the levels of gross domestic product (GDP) before the financial crisis, according to data published by the BEA.
The U.S. economy tipped into recession in December 2007 in the midst of financial crisis caused by subprime mortgage bubble burst but regained expansion momentum in June 2009. The economic expansion is now entering its ninth year and will be the longest on record in two years.
"The national recovery is absolutely complete," Stanford University economist Robert Hall said in an interview with Bloomberg. However, the economic recovery remains uneven.
The economic output of Connecticut in northeastern United States is still 5.9 percent below the level before recession. The economic performances of Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona and Mississippi in the west and south all remain short of the pre-recession level.
"The hallmark of the recovery is that it is being driven by the nation's largest metro areas," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody' s Analytics.
While each of the five states has individual obstacles, they epitomized the challenges rising from policy tensions between the federal and local governments.
The regional disparities are not holding back the Federal Reserve from raising the benchmark interest rate and reducing their balance sheet.
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