(Radio Iowa) – Creighton University Economist Ernie Goss says the problems that have slowed the Midwest economy are going to impact the holiday season as well. He says they asked supply managers who deal with holiday sales about the expected activity as part of the September economic survey.  “And it was weak, and when you annualize it about less than a half a percent growth, and that’s annualized over the rest of the year, and that’s for the holiday season coming up,” Goss says.  “Very weak holiday season expected,” Goss says. Goss says that’s below what you would normally see for the holiday.

“And what’s bringing that down is a lot of pre-buying. In other words, a lot of companies out there retailers, and other companies have built up their inventories in anticipation in anticipation of supply chain disruptions. So that’s what’s going to slow things down for the rest of the year,” according to Goss. Supply chain disruptions were the number one concern for all supply managers in the September survey, followed by labor shortages.