2022 Economic Roundtable.

• Author: Malan, Mekenna

This month, Utah Business partnered with Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar to host our first-annual roundtable event focused on Utah's economy. Moderated by Jeffrey Jones, shareholder and director at Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar, the industry-diverse group discussed predictions for the state's economy, company culture, brand loyalty, and more. Here are a few highlights from the event.

Generally, where is the economy going in the next 12-18 months?

Ramez Halteh | SVP & Private Bank Market Leader, UT & ID | KeyBank

The velocity and the pace by which interest rates have increased are pretty significant. The stock market's taken a pretty big hit. But when you look at company earnings, which came out in Q3, those were still pretty strong. The Consumer Price Index came out, and it was better than expected, at I think 7.4 percent. The Federal Reserve said their target is 2 percent. We've seen a lot of capital go into treasuries--it's the first time in a long time that we can say six-month treasuries are paying 4.5 percent. Coming out of the pandemic, most banks were up 50-60 percent in deposits, which shows how much liquidity there is in the marketplace. Now that liquidity is slowly dwindling, but not as much as you'd expect, as inflation takes its toll on it. Utah's always been a very resilient economy. The state has set itself up very nicely, so we're not reliant on one sector of the economy to keep us going.

Kyle Pasley | Managing Director, Real Estate | SITLA

We're thankful that the state has diversified because it diversifies our portfolio. We foresee that the country will go into a recession, though not as deep as the previous one. Well go aggressively into neutral because of the strength of our economy, the strength of our workforce, and other things. We'll just hit the neutral button and, in 12-18 months, start to come out. In real estate, we don't have an oversupply--that makes a huge difference in coming out of a recession. There's still a large demand for real estate, especially for housing. It's just getting our arms around it and making it more affordable.

Jim Bennett | Founder & Chairman | NOW CFO

I think there's a little bit of a psychological shock to the system because we've had rates that are historically very, very low. At NOW CFO, we serve about 900 clients in a given week, and our clients are still looking for people. They still have business, they're still spending, but there's just a big question mark going into next year. I don't think they view it as if it's going to be a terrible year, but maybe not nearly like 2022. We think inflation's going to take a while to tame, and that's got to slow some things down.

Ben Hart | Executive Director | Utah Inland Port Authority

For us, we're looking at not just 18 or 24 months but generational opportunities. We're seeing, in some spaces, 50 percent vacancy in downtown Salt Lake City. We're seeing 1 percent industrial vacancy right now in a lot of parts of the state. We're balancing a long-term public works project with the current needs of the economy...