Nevada eclipses $2 billion in exports

by Evangelos Otto Simos

SPECIAL TO THE RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL on 7/12/2004 10:37pm

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::	State Exports Nevada

Nevada exports rose 73 percent in 2003 from a year earlier — surpassing the $2 billion mark for the first time, state Commission on Economic Development figures show.

The agency’s findings parallel an analysis by Evangelos Simos, chief economist at the consulting/research firm Infometrica Inc., showing Nevada led the nation in export growth in the first four months of this year.

State officials said Nevada’s jump in exports last year was fueled in large part by its precious metals mining industry, which has made the state the third-biggest gold-producing entity worldwide behind South Africa and Australia.

To that end, much of Nevada’s gold went to Switzerland, said Al Di Stefano, the commission’s director of global trade and investment.


		Scott Sady/Scott Sady EXPORTER: Project Engineer Garrett Olson works on a machine on International Game Technology of Reno’s development floor. *Source: infometrica.com*

“Obviously, the Swiss banks are buying it,” Di Stefano said of Switzerland’s $658 million in Nevada exports last year, mostly in the form of gold.

That helped push gold past electronic machinery as Nevada’s leading export item, he said, adding that other countries also are importing Nevada goods at a double-digit pace.

“Canada exports are up 23 percent; Mexico’s were up 47 percent last year,” he said. “It’s across the board, virtually all countries.”

Another major exporter in Northern Nevada is Reno-based International Game Technology, the world’s biggest slot-machine maker and the biggest private employer in the region.

IGT saw a 50 percent increase in the number of gaming machines exported from last October through last March, said Rick Sorensen, public relations manager.

“That rise in the exports percentage covered growth in the Australian, European, South American and South African gaming markets,” Sorensen said. “We’re awaiting final figures for the third quarter of our fiscal year.”

Evangelos Otto Simos, chief economist at the consulting and research firm Infometrica Inc., is editor for International Affairs in the Journal of Business Forecasting and professor and chair of the Economics department at the University of New Hampshire.