EVENT EXAMINES ECONOMIC FUTURE

What is happening to the U.S., Missouri and area economy?

-- Labor markets continue to be tight.

-- Retailers and financial, real-estate and construction companies all report job gains.

-- Retail sales are up.

-- The conditions of two key gauges of the nation's economic health -- employment and inflation -- are good.

-- Expansions and new businesses tracked by the Missouri Department of Economic Development were up 55 percent in 1998.

-- Southeast Missouri business activity -- construction, employment and sales -- during the past year has been encouraging.

The economic outlook for the nation and region will be among topics at the first Economic Outlook Conference this month at Southeast Missouri State University. The conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Feb. 18 at Glenn Auditorium in Dempster Hall and will feature presentations on 1999 economic outlooks.

"The conference will be very useful to area businesses in planning for the coming year," said Dr. Bruce Domazlicky, director of the Center for Economic and Business Research at Southeast. "We're looking forward to the conference and would like to make it an annual event," he said.

Speakers include:

-- Dr. William Gavin, vice president of the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He will discuss the "Monetary Policy and Economic Outlook" for the region and nation.

-- Dr. Edward Robb, director of the Business and Public Administration Research Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He will discuss "The Economic Outlook for Missouri, 1999."

-- A panel of Glenn Smallwood, business development executive for AmerenUE in Cape Girardeau; J. Mike Seabaugh, project manager of the Missouri Department of Economic Development Dexter; and Chauncy Buchheit, deputy director of the Southeast Missouri Planning and Economic Development Commission in Perryville. They will discuss "The Economic Outlook for Southeast Missouri, 1999."

University sponsors for the conference are the department of economics, the Center for Economic and Business Research, and Donald L. Harrison College of Business. Two Cape Girardeau banks -- Capaha and Wood and Huston -- are corporate sponsors.

For tickets

Tickets at the door are $10 and in advance $8. To pre-register, call Dr. Rebecca Summary at 651-2181 or Bruce Domazlicky at 651-2013.