Victoria has emerged as Australia’s best-performing state economy in the latest quarterly CommSec State of the States report.
Victoria has taken the number one position from Tasmania after more than two years. Behind the top grouping of four economies in the CommSec report are Western Australia, South Australia, and NSW, followed by the Northern Territory.
Each of the Australian states and territory economies was assessed on eight key indicators: economic
growth; retail spending; equipment investment; unemployment, construction work done;
population growth; housing finance and dwelling commencements.
List of Australia’s best-performing state economies
1. Victoria
2. Australian Capital Territory
3. Tasmania
4. Queensland
5. Western Australia
6. South Australia
7. New South Wales
8. Northern Territory
The report shows that Victoria has created an exceptionally strong job market. This has helped propel the state to the top of the list.
Further, recent figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have also shown that Victoria’s unemployment rate is at a near 50-year low of 3.2 per cent. The CommSec report shows that Victoria delivered the largest jobs growth of all states and territories in June, with more than 28,000 new jobs, boosting the total number of Victorians in work to a record high of more than 3.54 million.
CommSec Chief Economist Craig James has explained that Victoria was closely followed by the ACT, Tasmania, and Queensland.
“Victoria may have moved to the top of the economic leader-board, but there is little to separate the top four economies. Victoria leads the way on two of the eight economic indicators. But showing how even the rankings are, the ACT and South Australia also each lead other economies on two of the eight indicators.”
James further added:
“When looking at annual growth to get a guide on economic momentum, Queensland had annual growth rates that exceeded the national average on all of the eight indicators.”
He says that the future economic performance would depend on how economies were affected by growing COVID-19 case numbers and also how they respond to rising interest rates.
Tasmania previously held the number one spot for the past nine quarters.
