How are Australia’s states and territories performing? Each quarter CommSec attempts to find out by analysing eight key indicators: economic growth; retail spending; equipment investment; unemployment; construction work done; population growth; housing finance and dwelling commencements.
Just as the Reserve Bank uses long-term averages to determine the level of “normal” interest rates; we have done the same with key economic indicators. For each state and territory, latest readings for the key indicators were compared with decade averages – that is, against the “normal” performance.
There has been no change in the rankings of States and Territories on the economic performance table.
There are basically three groups. Western Australia remains Australia’s best performing economy from the Northern
Territory and NSW. The next grouping is Queensland, Victoria and the ACT. And the final grouping is South Australia andTasmania.
Western Australia leads the way on retail trade and housing finance. The Northern Territory leads the way on economic growth, business investment, unemployment and construction work. And NSW is strongest on population growth and
dwelling starts.
