Taxable sales and purchases in North Dakota were up 10 percent for the second quarter of 2018, compared to the same period a year ago.
Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger sais taxable sales and purchases for April, May and June were $5.15 billion. Rauschenberger said a lot of the growth is coming from western North Dakota.
"The growth is coming from oil exploration," Rauschenberger said. "If you look at Dickinson, taxable sales and purchases were up 14 percent. In Williston, it was up over 30 percent."
Rauschenberger said is you look at the rest of the state, it's been fairly flat. And he said that's consistent with the last several quarters.
Fargo was fairly flat, Bismarck dropped by nearly 3 percent. But the biggest drop came in Grand Forks, where sales and purchases were down 11.75 percent.
"A lot of that is the strong US dollar," Rauschenberger said. "We aren't seeing as many Canadians coming down, and we see that because fewer Canadians have filed for sales tax refunds."
Rauschenberger said he's also keeping an eye on commodity prices, which he says could have some effect on sales and use taxes.
