Regional economic performance

The current economic expansion has been broadly-based across the states, with unemployment around multi-decade lows in all states and territories. While growth rates in Western Australia and Queensland have been the highest in the country in recent years, the divergences between the states narrowed somewhat over 2007, with high growth rates being recorded in most states. In aggregate, growth looks to have moderated in early 2008, and the slowdown has been broadly-based across states.

Historically, CPI inflation has typically varied little between the states. While inflation has generally been higher in the resource-rich states over the past few years, over the year to the March quarter 2008 it was well above 3 per cent in all capital cities.