CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — The Mountain State Business Index, a metric designed to measure the West Virginia economy’s health in the short term, ticked down 0.1 percent in September, continuing the worst stretch for the index in six years.
The index, a composite of seven key indicators used to measure the state’s economic performance, has declined by 2 percent over the past six months on an annualized basis, meeting one of the main criteria to signal a coming economic downturn.
But Brian Lego, a research assistant professor with the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research, which publishes the Mountain State Business Index, said the underlying data points suggest the state’s economic situation is more mixed.
“Sometimes one indicator can push everything down, and it can do that even for a prolonged period of time. And it can give you a sense that things are going horribly when in fact one thing is going horribly…
