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While economic growth is expected to ramp up nationally this year, Nebraska growth is expected to slow.

Recent economic reports disagree on whether the state economy is ramping up or slowing down. For example, the state's unemployment rate continues to fall and sales tax receipts were 5 percent above forecast in November. On the other hand, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Leading Economic Indicator turned negative in November, while a nine-state economic index showed Nebraska was the only state with a score that suggested a declining economy as of December.

Creighton economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the nine-state Mid-America Business Conditions Index, said he sees slower growth in the first half of the year.

"While growth will remain positive for the first half of 2014, it will be well down from the same period of 2013," Goss said in an email.

"Over the past year, job growth in Nebraska has exceeded 1.5 percent" he said. "I expect annualized job growth for the first half of 2014 to decline below 1 percent even as growth in the national economy improves significantly to 1.5 percent."