North Dakota’s taxable sales and purchases totaled $26.7 billion in 2023.
That’s an 11.5 percent increase from 2022’s $24.1 billion.
However, state Tax Commissioner Brian Kroshus says as the year 2023 progressed, the year-over-year gains became less pronounced. The fourth quarter of 2023 was 4.6 percent higher than in 2022.
"You can see, it's very pronounced as you move from the western part of the state — which was the strongest in terms of growth — to the eastern part of the state, which still did well — it was solid," Kroshus said.
Kroshus said the gains in the western part of the state were due to the oil industry. And he said he would describe the situation in eastern North Dakota to be more "normalized."
"We'll have to keep an eye on thin gs going forward," Kroshus said. "We have had favorable commodity pricing, but I think we're going to start to see that soften, to some extent."
Of the state’s largest cities, Williston saw an increase in taxable sales of 20.9 percent, while Fargo had an increase of .9 percent.