After a rough economic picture locally and nationally in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the forecast for 2021 and beyond is looking a little brighter, according to a local banking expert.
Catlin Bank President Jeff Fauver joined WDAN’s Linda Bolton on Newsmakers this past Friday morning. He says the Danville area might have a better financial forecast than some other areas around the country, pointing to only 6.4 percent unemployment locally versus 8.7 percent in Chicago, which he says is typically reversed, and third quarter retail sales numbers finished ahead of last year’s.
Fauver says that the current unemployment rate is much better than many analysts would have predicted.
“I think if you would have asked me at the beginning of this pandemic if we would be at this point, I would have told you ‘No,'” he says. “My crystal ball was looking like 10 percent or a lot worse than what it is today, for sure.”
Fauver says that most of his business customers did not need a second PPP loan from the federal government, which he says is a good thing, and some businesses actually saw business improve before the second round of loans was issued. He says he would encourage businesses not to spend a lot of money now and to hold off until next year.
“I think 2021’s really going to be a pretty good year economically, with all the money flowing around,” he explains. “My question would be 2022? Let’s not spend everything now. Let’s hold off a little bit, see where we end up after we open up, because I think we may need something then.”
While most business sectors should recover, Fauver says it is still uncertain whether certain industries such as hospitality, dining and the travel industry will recover to where they were before, due to changing consumer habits.
