State of the States

[Cerberus1]

If you're moving to Australia and haven't decided where to want to live yet, it may be worthwhile keeping an eye on CommSec's  'State of the States' reports. 

The quarterly report attempts to find out how Australia’s states and territories are performing by analysing eight key indicators:

• economic growth
• retail spending
• equipment investment
• unemployment
• construction work done
• population growth
• housing finance
• dwelling commencements.

Just as the Reserve Bank uses long-term averages to determine the level of “normal” interest rates; CommSec do the same with the economic indicators.

For each state and territory, latest readings for the key indicators were compared with decade averages – that is, against the “normal” performance.

The latest State of the States report also includes a section comparing annual growth rates for the eight key indicators across the states and territories as well as Australia as a whole. This enables another point of comparison – in terms of economic momentum.  

 

1. Victoria remains the top of the economic performance rankings. Victoria ranks first on economic growth, unemployment and construction work done.
2. NSW is second on the overall economic performance rankings but still holds top spot for retail spending and dwelling starts. NSW is second ranked on three other indicators.
3. The ACT has held on to third spot in the rankings. The ACT is top-ranked on relative housing finance and secondranked on population growth and business investment. Tasmania is in fourth position on the economic performance rankings, but is closing the gap on the ACT.
4. Tasmania is ranked first on the relative position on population growth and business investment and is in second spot on housing finance.
5. South Australia is now in fifth position on the performance rankings ahead of Queensland. But there is still little to separate the two economies. South Australia is thirdranked on construction work done and fourth on two other indicators.
6. Queensland is now in sixth position. Queensland ranks fifth on four of the eight indicators.
7. The Northern Territory retains its seventh position on the economic performance rankings and can be broadly grouped with Western Australia. Both are facing challenges with the transition of resource projects moving from the production to the export phase. The Northern Territory is third-ranked on economic growth. But it lags all other states and territories on five of the indicators. The good news is that employment has now been growing for the past five months.
8. Western Australia is seventh or eighth on all indicators (eighth on three indicators). But equipment spending is now the highest in 3½ years