Jan. 29—VALDOSTA — South Georgia business leaders gathered Friday for scrambled eggs and economic forecasts at the annual Business Outlook Breakfast.

The yearly get-together, held at Wiregrass Georgia Technical College, was sponsored by Citizens Community Bank.

After an introduction by Jamie Gibbons, vice president and commercial loan officer at the bank, the first speaker, Dr. Cynthia Tori, presented forecast data for the greater Valdosta area. Tori is a professor of economics at Valdosta State university.

She mentioned some of the major economic announcements for South Georgia from 2023, including Walmart's decision to build a major dairy plant in Lowndes County and the plans for the South Georgia Studios filming facilities in Brooks County.

"New businesses also bring about 'indirect hiring,' " she said, using the film studio as an example: such a business would need extensive dry cleaning facilities for its stock of costumes, for example.

The region's labor force has still not rebounded to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, Tori said. "Often young people leave," she said.

Agriculture — which Tori said was the backbone of the South Georgia community — has seen wage rates for immigrant workers outpacing inflation, cutting into profit margins, she said.

The housing market inventory has also not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, Tori said.

A combination of factors, including war, shipping woes and economic troubles in Germany mean inflation will still be a problem, she said.

The next speaker was Dr. Jeffrey M. Humphreys, director of the Selig Center at the University of Georgia.

Humphreys said he thinks Georgia in the near term will:

— suffer an economic slowdown short of a recession.

— see a 35% chance of a recession.

— not see any more rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

The final speaker was Dr. Roger Tutterow, professor of economics at Kennesaw State University. He said that personal savings saw a surge during the pandemic, as people had less opportunity to spend money during what amounted to an economic lockdown. The issuing of stimulus checks also had an impact, he said.

Final remarks were made by Christie Moore, president and CEO of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce.

Terry Richards is the senior reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times.