Queensland’s economy continues to gather momentum, based on the latest CommSec State of the States report.
The quarterly report, which tracks eight economic indicators, showed that while Queensland was currently equal-fourth on current performance, annual growth numbers continued to place it as the second-best state economy, behind Western Australia.
The April report identified South Australia as the having the best-performing economy, with Western Australia second, Victoria third and Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT and Tasmania all equal fourth.
The State of the States report tracks key indicators, such as economic growth, unemployment, construction work and dwelling starts and compares them with decade averages to create a picture of the current strength, but also looks at annual growth numbers to identify trends.
Aggregating the annual growth rates showed Western Australia had the strongest economic momentum, with Queensland second, positions the pair have maintained in recent surveys.
Queensland led the country on annual economic growth, growing by 4.2 per cent, followed by Victoria with 3.9 per cent growth.
Western Australia topped the table courtesy of being the best annual performer in employment growth (4.1 per cent), construction work (21.4 per cent), population growth (3.33 percent) and housing finance (12.1 per cent).
Queensland’s ranking was held back by having the second-worst figure on retail spending (-1.2 per cent), only beating New South Wales (-1.8 per cent) and suffering a 18.9 per cent decline in dwelling starts, which was only better than Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
