New South Wales has come in dead last in a new report by CommSec measuring the economic activity state by state across Australia.
The CommSec State of the States report measures a variety of economic indicators, including unemployment, new building starts, demand for resources and business investment state by state and compares states based on these indicators. NSW came out last, with the ACT faring considerably better in first position.
NSW has been caught without significant export income from resources like Queensland and Western Australia, combined with being hit hard by the Global Financial Crisis impacting on financial and other service industries. Add this to the slow down in growth in the building and construction sector as house prices continue to be amongst the highest in Australia and you have a perfect storm for poor performance in NSW.
“NSW still occupies the bottom ranking of the economic performance table, with the economy still lacking a key growth driver,” CommSec chief economist Craig James said.
“There is a degree of optimism that dwelling construction is starting to pick up and population is starting to rise, but it’s got a long way to go to bridge the gap to seventh position in the rankings.”
The NSW Government is seen as not being as accommodating to developers as the ACT Government, which accounts for the disparity in new housing development ranking between the two states.
“When there is strong demand for housing, when land has to be created, the ACT Government creates that land, puts that land onto the market,” Mr James said.
“That’s the real difference between the ACT and NSW. The ACT is number one in the rankings, NSW is number eight in the rankings.” Mr James said.
The States of the States rankings.
- Australian Capital Territory
- Western Australia
- South Australia
- Northern Territory
- Tasmania
- Victoria
- Queensland
- New South Wales
“But population growth is well above longer-term averages and there is a shortage of housing, so that potentially opens up an avenue of growth in coming quarters. “ he added.
