WA economy accelerates to fastest pace since 2014

WA’s economy continues to hold up in the face of numerous headwinds, recording the fastest pace of growth in nine years. ABS data released last week shows the WA economy grew 3.5% over the 2022-23 financial year, as measured by Gross State Product. 

Driving this growth was the mining industry, which contributed 1.5 percentage points to the result. This comes as no surprise, with the mining industry now making up 45% of WA’s economy while commodity prices largely remained elevated over the year. The transport (0.4 ppt) and wholesale trade (0.3 ppt) industries were the other significant contributors to growth.   

Inflation falls further, but there’s a catch 

Monthly CPI data released on Wednesday shows further easing in inflation, with the national inflation rate reading 4.9% over the year to October, down from 5.6% in September. This was driven by price falls across several goods over the months, including household furnishings and automotive fuel, as well as a sharp drop in the price of international travel with the peak European summer season now finished. Despite the good news, this month’s CPI figure doesn’t include changes in the price of many market services, which is where the RBA’s concerns around stubborn inflation are centred.  

WA households continue to open their wallets as the festive period nears  

Retail trade data was also released earlier in the week, revealing WA’s retail trade spending grew 0.8% over the month in October and 3.5% through the year. This is higher than the national growth of 1.2% for the year and up from the 3% recorded for WA in September. This is despite the recent Black Friday sales likely to see spending push up even further over November, showing consumer spending in WA continues to remain robust heading into the festive season. 

CCIWA’s Economic reports are available exclusively to CCIWA Complete, Advantage and Corporate Members. For more see CCIWA’s Economic Insight page.

*Graph sources: CCIWA, ABS