PORTLAND, Maine — Greater Bangor’s gross domestic product stumbled in 2014, reflecting one outcome of paper industry troubles in the region.
Overall, Maine’s performance lagged behind national averages.
The Bangor and Lewiston metropolitan areas both posted gross domestic product declines in 2014 as communities across southern Maine kept output about even with 2013.
While GDP in two of three metropolitan statistical areas in Maine dropped, it rose in about three in four MSAs nationwide, according to figures released Wednesday from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
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The Bangor area posted the largest change in GDP of any metropolitan area in the state, dropping more than 1 percent, compared with Lewiston-Auburn’s 0.26 percent fall and the Portland area’s 0.04 percent increase.
Nationally, inflation-adjusted — or real — GDP for U.S. metropolitan areas rose an average of 2.3 percent in 2014. That measure is the sum of spending by consumers and government, investment by businesses and the value of exports minus imports.
The metropolitan areas reflect a wide swath of land in the state, with the Bangor MSA including towns throughout Penobscot County and the Lewiston-Auburn MSA made up only of towns within Androscoggin County. In contrast, the Portland-South Portland metro area, which dwarfs output of the other designated regions, covers towns throughout Cumberland, York and Sagadahoc counties.
The drop in Bangor was led by a 19 percent fall in manufacturing GDP, to $230 million from about $280 million in 2013, in inflation-adjusted figures. That drop entirely was because of lower output for nondurable goods, a category for which paper products manufacturing made up half the output in 2013.
The BEA did not report output figures for paper products manufacturing for 2014 but logged a $50 million drop for nondurable goods in the Bangor area. That area includes East Millinocket, where the Great Northern Paper mill shut down in January 2014.
The Bangor metro’s output figures do not include the Hancock County town of Bucksport, where Verso Paper Corp. operated a mill that employed about 500 people making paper until the end of 2014.
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The latest data also show the relative makeup of each region’s GDP, with all showing growth in the category of education services, health care services and social assistance.
That sector was the Bangor area’s largest in 2014, nearing $1 billion, and grew by about 1.4 percent. It also was largest in the Lewiston-Auburn area, where that sector grew 4.8 percent to $690 million.
The Portland area’s largest sector — finance, insurance and real estate rental and leasing — dipped its share of GDP by about 3 percent, to $6.9 billion.
Across all of Maine’s metro areas, construction, manufacturing and finance, insurance and real estate rental and leasing share of GDP rose. Service-sector industries, such as professional and business services, education services, health care and social assistance and arts, entertainment and recreation, posted gains for the year.
The largest GDP increase came for wholesalers, a category that posted 13.3 percent growth across all metro areas.
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