ByJessica Floum September 26, 2016Updated: September 26, 2016 6:26pm Photo: Eric Risberg, Associated Press San Francisco's booming skyline. The Bay Area outpaced the rest of the state and the country in economic growth for at least the fifth consecutive year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan area’s gross domestic product increased by 8.9 percent between 2014 and 2015, making it the second-fastest-growing metro area in the country behind only Midland, Texas. In the same period, the economy of the San Francisco metropolitan area, which includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Mateo counties, increased by 4.1 percent. The average U.S. metro area grew at a 2.5 percent rate in 2015. The continued growth of technology companies in the South Bay made a large contribution to the region’s $223 billion GDP in 2015, said Micah Weinberg, president of the Bay Area Council’s Economic Institute. While so-called unicorn startups make waves for the multibillion-dollar valuations investors place on them, GDP is measured more conventionally, through sales of products and services. So it’s the more established companies like Apple, Google, Facebook and Salesforce that make a significant mark on the region’s economy. “There are footprints of all major industry sectors in the Bay Area, but tech is the big kahuna,” Weinberg said. http://www.sfchronicle.com/business...y-outpaces-U-S-China-9289809.php?t=73efb64a26