Victoria has unseated New South Wales as Australia’s top performing economy buoyed by a strong population growth and a lift in construction activity, which includes construction of new homes, according to a recently released report.
The latest CommSec State of the States report showed that for the first time in nine years, New South Wales has been bumped from the top spot as the country’s top performing economy.
Craig James, chief economist at CommSec, said strong population growth, underpinning a lift in construction activity, has resulted in Victoria nudging New South Wales out of the top spot for economic performance.
“However,” James said, “there is little to separate the two economies, with the common features being firm population growth, higher home building and stronger job markets.”
James said while New South Wales has the strongest job market in the nation and is showing good economic growth, a number of housing indicators softened this quarter, including home loans and spending on new plant and equipment.
CommSec, the online broking arm of Australia’s largest bank, assesses the performance of each state and territory on a quarterly basis using eight key indicators which include economic growth, retail spending, business investment, unemployment, construction work, population growth, housing finance, and dwelling commencements.
Just as the Reserve Bank uses long-term averages to determine the level of “normal” interest rates, CommSec compares the key indicators to decade averages; that is, against the “normal” performance.
In the latest report, Victoria ranked first for three of the eight economic indicators (construction work, economic growth and dwelling starts), taking top spot in the performance rankings for the first time since CommSec introduced the report in October 2009.
NSW maintained its top rankings for retail spending and the relative performance on unemployment, coming in second overall, while ACT maintained third place, continuing to lead the nation for home loans. Tasmania was strongest on relative population growth.
CommSec also compares annual growth rates for the eight key indicators for all states and territories, in addition to Australia as a whole, enabling a comparison of economic momentum. Victoria outperformed other states and territories on three growth measures and exceeded the national average on six of the eight indicators. NSW and the ACT lead on two growth measures and Tasmania on one.
by Jessica Hammoud in Latest News
Archived Posts
- February 2024 (2)
- November 2023 (3)
- July 2023 (3)
- March 2023 (1)
- September 2022 (1)
- June 2022 (3)
- March 2022 (1)
- February 2022 (6)
- May 2021 (2)
- March 2021 (1)
- February 2021 (1)
- December 2020 (1)
- November 2020 (1)
- October 2020 (1)
- September 2020 (1)
- August 2020 (1)
- July 2020 (4)
- February 2020 (1)
- December 2019 (3)
- August 2019 (1)
- July 2019 (1)
- June 2019 (1)
- March 2019 (4)
- February 2019 (3)
- December 2018 (3)
- November 2018 (3)
- October 2018 (3)
- September 2018 (3)
- August 2018 (3)
- July 2018 (3)
- June 2018 (3)
- May 2018 (8)
- April 2018 (3)
- March 2018 (2)
- February 2018 (3)
- December 2017 (3)
- November 2017 (4)
- October 2017 (5)
- August 2017 (3)
- July 2017 (3)
- June 2017 (3)
- May 2017 (3)
- April 2017 (10)
- March 2017 (3)
- February 2017 (4)
- December 2016 (5)
- November 2016 (10)
- October 2016 (6)
- September 2016 (6)
- August 2016 (3)
- July 2016 (3)
- June 2016 (2)
- May 2011 (1)