Hampton Roads experienced its third consecutive year of real economic growth in 2012, a recently issued regional economic report said.

James Clary, senior economist for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, said in “Hampton Roads Economic Quarterly” that GRP rose to $84.8 billion, an inflation-adjusted increase of 2 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis for the Gross Metropolitan Area Product (GMP).

Clary said that the Hampton Roads economy grew by 0.5 percent in 2011 and 1.2 percent in 2010.

The GRP, also called gross regional product, describes the size of a regional economy by calculating the market value of all goods and services that are produced within a region in a given year, the report said, GRP is comparable to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the national level.

According to the nominal rankings, Hampton Roads was 39th out of 281 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, the report said. Gloucester ...