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What will power Central Ohio’s economy in 2026—and what’s keeping business leaders up at night? With changing tariffs, reduced immigration, and transformative tech like AI reshaping entire industries, the economic road ahead may not look smooth. Yet Central Ohio continues to outperform much of the Midwest—thanks to population growth, public investment, and a rapidly diversifying economy. What trends will define the year ahead for our region’s employers, workers, and entrepreneurs? And what are the risks no one’s talking about yet? Join CMC for the Blue Chip Economic Forecast, our annual must-attend kickoff to the new year, to hear what 2026 might have in store for the Columbus region.
Featuring Dr. Bill LaFayette, Owner, Regionomics; Dr. Aravind Chandrasekaran, Dean, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University; Kathy Bostjancic, Chief Economist, Nationwide, with moderator Ben Lanka, Business Editor, The Columbus Dispatch.
Please check out the Regionomics Columbus Forecast 2026 to learn more. And if you would like to dive more deeply into this topic, our friends at the Columbus Metropolitan Library suggest checking out In this Economy? How Money and Markets Really Work, by Kyla Scanlon, 2024.
Photographs by: Serena Shi Studios
