Western Australia has been crowned the country’s best performing economy two quarters in a row by CommSec in its January State of the States report with higher measured spending, population growth and a strong job market.
To rank each State and Territory for each quarter, they are assessed on eight key indicators: economic growth; retail spending; equipment investment; unemployment, construction work done; population growth; housing finance and dwelling commencements.
In taking top spot, WA is ranked first in five of the eight economic indicators used, including retail spending, relative unemployment, relative population growth, housing finance and dwelling starts.
Interestingly, even with the fastest annual rise in housing prices up 19.1%, it also recorded the most dwelling starts for the quarter.
Best to worst of the rest
Queensland is now equal second, up from third place, with solid results across the board. South Australia, now joint second, ranks first in economic growth.
Victoria remains in fourth place - leading on construction work done and fourth spot on two indicators. Tasmania remained steady during the quarter in fifth spot - ranking second on equipment spending, but hampered by lower rankings on other indicators
NSW moves up to sixth from seventh position and now ranks fifth on four indicators, while the ACT drops back to seventh.
The Northern Territory remains in last place due to outside indicators such as LNG investment inflating numbers.
Annualised growth percentages
Over the past 12 months it’s Queensland leads WA in economic growth, yet there’s little to separate the two resource- and tourism-heavy states.
Looking ahead, CommSec says, WA and Queensland are expected to continue their recent dominance of the rankings in early 2025. This is backed by job growth and robust housing markets.
WA’s retail spending was the strongest at 2.1% growth over the year. That's reflected in its annual new car sales which have jumped a whopping 25.4% on the decade average and 4.9% year-on-year.
