But New Jersey remains an economic laggard compared with the nation as a whole, and it is still in shock from a wave of corporate layoffs that struck many of its biggest employers, including AT&T.

But even some of the economic laggards of the Deep South are doing well.

Even the economic laggards of the region - the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, formerly Burma - are showing new vitality.

The reputation of the Philippines as the economic laggard of Southeast Asia has begun to fade.

It is time for the U.S. to stop looking at Egypt as a pillar in the peace process, and start looking at it as an economic laggard badly in need of shock therapy.

Other governors offered a similar message, even the governors of some states that traditionally have been depressed, economic laggards, like West Virginia.

Over the past six years New Jersey's economy has been transformed from the economic laggard of the Northeast to the regional leader in economic expansion and job growth.

Germany, home of the European Central Bank and the anchor of the euro zone, is the Continent's economic laggard, with growth for next year projected to be barely 1 percent.

In addition, the Trade Indemnity survey pinpoints Scotland as an economic laggard with the fall in company failures between the third quarter and fourth quarters of 1992 restricted to 2 per cent.

Looking around Asia in the early 1990's, they observed that except for Japan, Asian democracies like India and the Philippines were the economic "laggards of the region."