Jul 28, 2026 · 22 min · 9 segments
Economic uncertainty, inflation and a real estate are dark clouds on Florida's business climate. In this timely download, OBJ Editor-in-Chief Richard Bilbao invites respected UCF economist, Dr. Sean…
Richard BilbaoHost
Dr. Snaith, I know you tend to release a lot of reports over time, and we're going to focus on one that you released in early July, which is when we're recording this.
Your July report had stated that Florida's economy is in, quote, shifting gears and is no longer in the fast lane.
Can you talk a little bit about what you mean by that, and how should business owners translate that description as they kind of look into the rest of 2026 and as they kind of pre-plan for 2027?
Yeah, I think what we're seeing here is now in 2025, you know, Florida was leading along with South Carolina, the rest of the states in terms of real GDP growth.
So while we may be moving out of that fast lane, out of that COVID boosted growth that Florida experienced because of the decision to sort of reopen the economy faster than many other states did.
We're likely, we expect to remain one of the faster growing states, but it's just the pace of that growth is not going to be as high as it has been for the past several years.
So, yeah, maybe out of the fast lane, but not necessarily no longer leading the pack.
Is there anything specific or significant about our current economic climate that has piqued your interest in your analysis and your studies?
There's just a convergence of what I would refer to as economic crosscurrents that are hitting the economy all at once.
And so just some of the bigger ones, of course, you know, we've got geopolitical issues, the conflict with Iran.
Is it over? Is it back on? What impact has that had, that spike in energy prices? Is that the decline going to be lasting? We don't know the end, the final chapter of this.
And so that is hanging, I think, over the economy and, of course, the direct impacts on the economy of higher energy prices and any potential downstream effects that we might see start to emerge.
And if this is the end and energy prices are back down to levels close to pre-pandemic, then it should be more of a bump in the road.
If this flares up again, intensifies, there's a lot of worse outcomes that are possible.
Dr. Snape, there's always news reports out there, kind of conversations between business owners.
Dr. Snaith, I know you tend to release a lot of reports over time, and we're going to focus on one that you released in early July, which is when we're recording this.
Your July report had stated that Florida's economy is in, quote, shifting gears and is no longer in the fast lane.
Can you talk a little bit about what you mean by that, and how should business owners translate that description as they kind of look into the rest of 2026 and as they kind of pre-plan for 2027?
Yeah, I think what we're seeing here is now in 2025, you know, Florida was leading along with South Carolina, the rest of the states in terms of real GDP growth.
So while we may be moving out of that fast lane, out of that COVID boosted growth that Florida experienced because of the decision to sort of reopen the economy faster than many other states did.
We're likely, we expect to remain one of the faster growing states, but it's just the pace of that growth is not going to be as high as it has been for the past several years.
So, yeah, maybe out of the fast lane, but not necessarily no longer leading the pack.
Is there anything specific or significant about our current economic climate that has piqued your interest in your analysis and your studies?
There's just a convergence of what I would refer to as economic crosscurrents that are hitting the economy all at once.
And so just some of the bigger ones, of course, you know, we've got geopolitical issues, the conflict with Iran.
Is it over? Is it back on? What impact has that had, that spike in energy prices? Is that the decline going to be lasting? We don't know the end, the final chapter of this.
And so that is hanging, I think, over the economy and, of course, the direct impacts on the economy of higher energy prices and any potential downstream effects that we might see start to emerge.
And if this is the end and energy prices are back down to levels close to pre-pandemic, then it should be more of a bump in the road.
If this flares up again, intensifies, there's a lot of worse outcomes that are possible.
Dr. Snape, there's always news reports out there, kind of conversations between business owners.
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