The ACT is easily holding its spot as Australia's third-best-performing economy after NSW and Victoria, with predictions it could move even further up the rankings, according to a new report.
The first quarterly CommSec State of the States report for 2017 analysed eight key economic indicators in each state and territory, and showed NSW and Victoria beat the ACT on business investment, unemployment rates and housing finance.
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Record sales across ACT suburbs
The ACT districts of Belconnen, Gungahlin and Weston Creek led the pack for new house price records.
The report, published Monday, compared the quarterly performance of each state and territory to its "normal" decade average or "recent experience", on retail spending, housing finance, unemployment rates, business investment, construction work completed and and dwellings commenced.
"The ACT has comfortably held onto third spot in the performance rankings," the report said.
"The job market remains in good shape with consumer, business and housing spending providing solid support for the economy over the coming year.
"NSW remains solidly on top of the economic performance rankings but it may experience a challenge from either Victoria or the ACT over the coming year."
CommSec State of the States #SOTS NSW has solidly held the position as the best performing economy #ausbiz https://t.co/6srePIpgaM pic.twitter.com/p7DVkFh9uy
— CommSec (@CommSec) January 22, 2017
Economic growth in the ACT was 23.3 per cent higher than the territory's decade average, putting it as the nation's third strongest behind NSW and the Northern Territory.
Retail spending in the ACT for the past quarter was up 11.6 per cent on the territory's decade average, with the annual growth of retail trade the strongest in the ACT, climbing 4.5 per cent.
The jobless rate was currently up 0.7 per cent on the decade average; the ACT has the second-lowest rate nationally in trend terms.
Business spending and investment was down 6.7 per cent below recent experiences, but the ACT was still the third best-performing with only NSW and Victoria seeing business spending above normal levels during the past quarter.
Housing finance was also up, with new commitments 11 per cent above normal rates with house prices rising annually by 9.3 per cent, beaten by Sydney (15.5), Melbourne (13.7) and Hobart (11.2) before Adelaide followed at a 4.2 per cent increase.
The ACT saw the fourth highest rise in population growth after Victoria, NSW and Queensland respectively, with the capital also fourth-ranked in terms of dwelling starts.
Construction work in the ACT was 5.2 per cent above the decade average, putting it fourth in the country, while still seeing an 20.8 per cent increase annually.
In order, economic performance by state ranked NSW, Victoria, ACT, Tasmania, Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia.