Stephen Fuller: Two-Year Budget Deal Helps ‘Neutralize’ Sequester’s Impact on DC Economy

Some Washington-area business leaders see 2014 as being a better year for the local economy compared to a 2013 that saw market uncertainty resulting from sequestration, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Sarah Halzack writes that a Post poll of economists, executives and academics indicates general agreement of an improved business climate and most respondents cited the bipartisan two-year budget agreement as among the main reasons for an improved outlook.

The deal would avoid another round of automatic federal spending cuts, “neutralizing the constraints that have held the economy back in ’13,” added Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.

“(Year 2014) won’t be good, but it will be better,” James Dinegar, chief executive of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, told the Post.