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Show Utah Bank Executive Sees Economic Growth Utah's business picture for 1957 will be slightly above that in 1956, and employment should gain to new record highs, a banking leader predicted Tuesday. Tues-day. He is Willard L. Eccles, president pre-sident of the Utah Bankers Association. Asso-ciation. "There Is no evidence that our robust economy of the past three years has reached a peak," Mr. Eccles said. "Our studies show that most mineral production, on which much of the state's economy econ-omy Is based, should continue at high levels. Steel should continue con-tinue to operatf at capacity to fill orders now On the books. Indications In-dications are, however, that steel shortages will somewhate affect expansion plans of fabricators." "Bankers expect savings In Utah to continue at a relatively high level," Mr. Eccles said. "High bank Interest rates, together to-gether with promotional activities activi-ties to encourage thrift, should encourage further gains In savings." sav-ings." "Our surveys show that total construction In Utah in 1957 should aproximate the $300 million mil-lion figure In 1956." the bank leader said. "Construction of commercial and Industrial buildings build-ings should about equal 1956 levels, while outlays for utilities and pipelines should be somewhat some-what above 1956 totals. Housing construction Is expected to be slightly lower than last year. Construction for local governmental govern-mental units and schools should be about even with 1956, with x -2i:f WILLARD L. ECCLES ' reclamation and highway programs pro-grams up." "Our Utah bankers expect the demand for credit to be high for some months, possibly higher high-er than the supply of available funds," Mr. Eccles said. "Tight money has helped to curb threatening threat-ening Inflation." |
