NSW has maintained its position as the best performing economy in the country thanks to relatively strong retail spending and residential construction, CommSec's latest State of the States report says.
Victoria moved up to second place in the June quarter, largely because a softening job market over recent months dropped the ACT to third, while Queensland and Tasmania tied for fourth.
Western Australia is again in last place with annual growth rates below the national averages for all eight indicators considered by the quarterly report.
Those indicators are: economic growth, retail spending, business investment, unemployment, construction work, population growth, housing finance, and dwelling starts.
1. NSW - People are spending the most in NSW with solid housing activity, low unemployment and higher home prices continuing to support spending.
2. VICTORIA - Continues to lead on population growth and comes second to NSW on retail spending.
3. ACT - Housing finance and construction is driving the ACT's economy.
4=. TASMANIA - Helped by the third highest population growth.
4=. QUEENSLAND - Benefiting from strong tourism and exports rising at an annual rate of 56 per cent.
6. SOUTH AUSTRALIA - Showing promising signs with investment lifting over the past quarter.
7. NORTHERN TERRITORY - Still ranked first on construction work completions, unemployment and economic growth, but lags other economies on forward looking indicators such as population growth, housing finance and home starts.
8. WESTERN AUSTRALIA - Continues to show the effects of the passing of the mining boom, but unemployment has eased over the last three months.
