Mississippi's Gross Domestic Product showed a decline from April to June. Agriculture and its related industries offset growth here, even as it boosted growth in other states.
The total value of Mississippi’s goods and services, or GDP, declined 0.9% in the second quarter of 2025. Mississippi and Arkansas were the only two states that showed a decline in that quarter.
At the same time, the national GDP grew by 3.8%, according to a report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The report shows a slowdown for Mississippi, but economics professor Josh Hendrickson of the University of Mississippi says it’s important to keep it in context.
“At the state level you're just getting a lot more volatility than you get at the national level,” he told MPB.
It’s not just state context to keep in mind, either. Brian Blank, a finance professor at Mississippi State University, said to look at the overall trends.
“The growth rate for both the Mississippi, the Southeastern, and the national economy was relatively rapid if we go back a few years,” said Blank. “It's been slowly declining since then.”
Along with GDP, the BEA report shows that Mississippi also had some of the slowest growth for personal income as well – a 2.7% increase compared to the U.S. average of 5.5%.
But, the change in the cost of what Mississippians are buying – personal consumption expenditure – was slower than the national average.
Mississippi had the smallest PCE increase at only 4.3% compared to the national average of a 5.6% increase. According to that report, gasoline and other energy goods contributed significantly to that drop.
“In one way, it's good that Mississippians are able to continue spending,” Blank said. “But unfortunately, we know that some of that is related to price growth, and so that's not ideal.”
The slow income growth in relation to price increases, aren’t uncommon to see nationally, he added.
The most notable finding for Mississippi was agricultural performance, which declined by 2.65%.
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting was the biggest contributor to growth in six states, but the biggest detractor for six others, including Mississippi.
“There’s lots of agriculture that was planted late, I guess I should say later than usual,” Hendrickson said, “because of severe weather and because of rainfall.”
This year, spring rains were heavy, causing issues with planting and ultimately affecting harvesting.
Reports from MSU Extension detail how those rains have led to a lower yield of state rice crops and caused problems with corn planting earlier in the year.
Despite the trends from earlier this year, both Blank and Hendrickson say Mississippi’s been doing well long-term and the current decline may simply be a short-term drop.
“Mississippi has experienced as much economic growth in the past four years as it did like the previous ten,” Hendrickson said.