NSW again strongest Australian economy

New South Wales was Australia’s top performing economy in 2017, followed by Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, as it retained its tops ranking across most economic indicators in CommSec’s latest State of the States report.

CommSec looked at the performance of each state and territory regarding retail trade, dwelling starts, equipment investment, construction work, unemployment, population growth, business investment and housing finance across each quarter.

New South Wales secured the top ranking in five of these categories, which was the third year in a row it had been the top performing economy. Victoria was the second best, leading annual growth in multiple indicators.

“As we saw last quarter, Australia’s economies are in good shape but it is the two most populous states that lead the way on the back of solid activity in home purchase and construction,” Craig James, CommSec chief economist said.

Queensland showed strong employment growth, while Tasmania was top-ranked on relative population growth. South Australia shows growth in construction work and the Australian Capital Territory was the leader in housing finance. The Norther Territory showed strong growth in exports, but also had worse unemployment than in previous years.

In positive news for Western Australia, employment growth was close to the highest it had been in five years and population growth was strong, despite the end of the mining construction boom.