New South Wales remains the best performing economy in Australia but there have been subtle shifts of the mid-ranked states and territories, according to the latest State of the States Report released by CommSec.
While New South Wales sits at or near the top of all of the key economic indicators used for the rankings, Victoria was not far behind, bolstered by the strength of high population driving housing demand.
The ACT came in third with the softening in their job market, and South Australia lifted from sixth to fourth in the rankings in just one quarter.
“The latest data shows Australia’s domestic economies to be in good shape but with some differences in relative performance," CommSec chief economist Craig James said.
"Those economies benefitting from favourable population growth are performing best, reflected in stronger home building and retail activity.”
Each of the state and territory economies were assessed on eight key indicators: economic growth, retail spending, business investment, unemployment, construction work done, population growth, housing finance and dwelling commencements.
When looking across growth rates for the states and territories, Victoria out-performed the national average on all eight indicators. At the other end of the scale, Western Australia's annual growth rates were below the national average on seven of the eight indicators.
Northern Territory underperformed on six indicators with Queensland and South Australia under-performing on four.
