The UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project — a major source of economic data and predictions for business owners and government leaders throughout the Tri-Counties — has named a new director and narrowed its focus to Santa Barbara County.

Peter Rupert, a UCSB economics professor who came to the school in 2007 after 13 years as a senior economic advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, will head the nonprofit forecasting unit. He has plans for a major technology-enabled overhaul that would make the project’s data more immediate and interactive than its current book-once-a-year format.

But restructuring to focus on Santa Barbara County will leave Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties without a UCSB economic forecast event for the first time in more than a decade.

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