According To Moody’s, Montana Is Now In A Recession

Is the Treasure State In A Recession?

It's a word that no one wants to hear, and everyone wants to avoid making it a reality as much as possible.

That word is "recession," and according to one industry leader, it's already here in Montana.

Decline In Tourism Spending Across Montana

Plenty of thought-provoking articles were written earlier this year about tourism being down across America.

With Montana relying heavily on tourism during the summer months, it will be interesting to see if those predictions bear out, once we start to see numbers come in.

Still, even if more people visited the Treasure State in 2025, it appears they they spent significantly less money than in previous years.

Agriculture Impacted By New Tariffs

It's not just tourism dollars being down that led Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, to say Montana is currently in or at risk of a recession.

Agriculture is among the industries most significantly affected by the tariffs implemented by the new administration.

Other factors include credit card delinquency rates, declining credit scores, along with migration.

Financial Indicators Hint At Economic Slowdown

While Montana at one point was one of the fastest-growing states in America, we've now slowed down, which is another indicator that our state is potentially experiencing a recession.

There is still some positive news from Mark Zandi, as he believes the country as a whole right now is not in a recession.

He explicitly said, "My takeaway is not that the economy is in recession, but it's pretty darn close."

Source: Mark Zandi, Axios