Reprinted with permission from The Standard, from their April 28, 2023 edition.
President, CEO, and Board Chair Joel P. Murray was given the opportunity to discuss the current state and inward pressures of the regional Massachusetts economy, the reinsurance marketplace, and the job market. This interview was featured in an article in The Standard.
With the March unemployment rate at 3.7% the Massachusetts economy is doing well, but inflation is affecting everyone and challenges lay ahead, according to Joel Murray, president and chief executive officer of The Norfolk and Dedham Group.
Murray recently spoke to members of the South Shore Independent Insurance Agents Association about the economy, the reinsurance market and the hunt for new talent.
Murray remains cautiously optimistic about the economy. The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank appears to be an isolated incident and not an indication of weakness in the banking sector in general. Over time, Murray expects there to be pressure on credit with banks lending less, which would slow growth.
Looking ahead, the biggest unknown is the commercial real estate market.
“We don’t write a lot of real estate. We write a lot of habitational business, and that market is fine. If anything, there needs to be more places to live. The question is, can you retrofit higher-end commercial properties to residential? That’s a big challenge, just by the way it’s structured. Absent that, I feel like locally, we’re in really good shape,” said Murray.
Read the full article here.
