SA Starts 2026 On Top
South Australia is leading the pack in the latest ANZ Stateometer, maintaining “top position” on the national index on the back of a sharp rise in business conditions.
The influential quarterly survey said that for the September quarter of 2025, “SA maintained its stand-out performance as it recorded the fastest index growth relative to its long-run trend nationally for the third consecutive quarter”.
It declared our state remains “above trend following a re-acceleration in economic momentum”, with inflation and unemployment below the national average.
It also noted South Australia was one of only three states expected to record budget surpluses every year between 2025-26 and 2028-29.
The ANZ Stateometer is a set of composite indices measuring economic performance across Australia’s states and territories, measuring annual growth relative to each jurisdiction’s trend growth rate.
The ANZ said the increase in SA’s index was driven by “the sharpest rise in the business component across the jurisdictions”.
South Australia recorded the largest rise in hours worked nationwide in Q3, up 0.9 per cent from the previous quarter compared to 0.1 per cent nationally.
The latest endorsement of South Australia’s economic performance follows a solid run of achievements, after the Business Council of Australia’s recent Regulation Rumble report rated the state as the best place to do business in Australia – for the third year in a row.
BankSA’s most recent State Monitor reported SA’s economy continued to outperform all other mainland states and territories, as consumer confidence reached its highest level in four years..
South Australia is the lowest taxing state on the mainland based on tax revenue per capita, as reflected in each state’s budget papers.
As put by Peter Malinauskas
The endorsements for our state’s strong economic performance keep coming.
South Australia’s top billing on the latest ANZ Stateometer reinforces what we have heard across several recent surveys, including from the Business Council of Australia – that SA is a great place to do business.
We are the lowest taxing state on the mainland, with unemployment and inflation below the national average.
The ANZ survey says it all – SA has maintaining top position on the national index on the back of the sharpest rise in the business component across all jurisdictions.
With all the nation’s major financial institutions enthusing about SA’s economic momentum, it shows just why South Australia can’t risk the chaos and dysfunction of a Liberal State Government.
The South Australian economy continues to make great strides, but the disunity, profligacy and lack of policy cohesion the Liberals offer would risk undoing these significant gains.
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