UPBEAT OUTLOOK.

• Author: Kinney, Ben
• Position: ECONOMIC FORECAST ROUND TABLE

A long list of job announcements closed out 2017. As the state looks to repeat its success this year, it can't afford to leave rural areas behind.

U.S. ECONOMISTS PREDICT SOLID GROWTH AND A CONTINUED DECLINE IN THE JOBLESS RATE IN 2018.

So too, our panel is optimistic about North Carolina's year ahead. These experts, representing some of the state's most important sectors, gathered at N.C. State University's Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center on Centennial Campus to share their takes on what forces will shape the economy in the months ahead. The transcript was edited for brevity and clarity.

WHERE DO YOU SEE THE STATE'S ECONOMY GOING IN 2018?

FOLWELL We manage the 26th-largest pool of money in the entire world, public money. We have over $110 billion in investments. In addition to that, I'm the state banker, which means there's about $120 billion on top of the $110 billion that comes through our office. When you make a tuition payment, when you rent a canoe, eventually it comes through the state treasurer s office. We're spending close to $800 million every 30 days for pension, health care and pharmacy benefits for active and retired state employees. That's over 300,000 [people].

North Carolina has to be the low-cost place to live and do business. Money goes where it's invited and stays where it's welcome. If you look at our AAA bond rating, our rainy-day fund, the pension plan--one of the five best-funded pension plans in the United States--the unemployment trust fund, I'm very excited about 2018. But it's because of a lot of things that have been done over the last eight years that's put North Carolina in this position and brought certainty to the people who actually create the jobs in the state.

HEDGECOCK We have 42,000 members. That's up from 32,000 in 2014. So, obviously, people think it's a good time to get into real estate. We do have some slight inventory concerns. Realtors across North Carolina report historically low inventories of available residential properties. The student-debt crisis is keeping folks from buying until they're a little bit older and have paid down a lot of that debt. Young adults living with their parents is at a rate of 16%, where it was 10% in 2003. Those things are affecting home buyership. That said, potential consumer confidence remains high.

DYE We're a 50-year-old employee-owned company based here in North Carolina. We have investments from Virginia to Georgia, and we're invested here in the Triangle and the Triad and the Charlotte market as well. We continue to be bullish in North Carolina. We're a key growth economy for two markets. Raleigh is No. 3, and Charlotte is No. 10. Some of the challenges that face the [homeownership] market help us in terms of rentership for apartments.

SAYLOR We own 317 miles of rail line in the state leased to Norfolk Southern [Corp.]. That relationship generates working capital for economic development, and what we do with that is we invest in rail projects for freight to create jobs. We improve the railroad line also for passenger rail, and we invest for the long term. Recent projects that we've worked on include Triangle Tyre Co. [bringing 800 jobs to] Edgecombe County.

From where we sit, freight growth is going to continue into 2018. We've seen a lot of good manufacting growth, not just in North Carolina, but around the Southeast.

I think our transportation structure in this state--highways, rail, ports and air--all are doing pretty well. When you see the world looking at flights to China and flights out of Charlotte increasing, that indicates the economic activity I think we all want to see. Challenges are going to be how to keep pace, though. It takes a long time to design and build roads and railroads. We've put $110 million into our railroad in the last 10 years. That's not counting some of the recent economic-development announcements that we've seen in the last 18 months or so, last-mile investments to get rail to the doorstep of a new company.

BOOTHBY Tax reform is the biggest sweeping tax legislation that's happened in 30 years in this country and comes on the heels of a very aggressive tax policy that North Carolina put in place a few years ago. [Many people are] really hoping for a...