South Australia’s economic performance in the last quarter of 2011 ranked sixth among Australian states, according to latest research from the Commonwealth Bank.

The Commonwealth Bank’s latest quarterly State of the States report shows South Australia had the second-weakest growth in wages but has the highest consumer price index of any Australian state.
"If wages aren't keeping up with prices then people are going backwards and it's going to affect retail spending and if South Australians don't spend that it has knock-on effects through the economy, so it's certainly something to watch out for,” Commsec's chief economist, Craig James told ABC News.

"SA has slipped down in the latest quarter. It has basically lost ground in the rankings of overall economic growth, population growth and housing finance. From what we we've been able to see SA continues to be largely middle-ranked on the eight indicators.

"Which is not bad news, it's not significantly lagging the other states but it's certainly not leading the other economies either. Some of the other states are doing better in terms of economic growth and I think that's probably what's really happened over the last quarter.”  

Updated 24 Jan 2012