Victoria’s economy continues to be the fastest growing in the nation, according to the latest CommSec State of the States Report released today.

Victoria’s annual economic growth rate is up 4.3 per cent on a year ago, ahead of NSW (up 3 per cent) and Tasmania (2.8 per cent).

Victoria also continues to record the strongest annual population growth, up 1.75 per cent from a year ago, and rates highly on housing finance, retail trade, dwelling starts and unemployment.

As outlined in the Victorian Budget 2016/17, this is consistent with the continued return of confidence to the Victorian economy, with more than 112,000 new jobs created since the Andrews Labor Government was elected in November 2014.

More than 71,000 of those jobs have been full time.

Each quarter CommSec examines the performance of the states against eight key indicators: economic growth, retail spending, equipment investment, unemployment, construction work done, population growth, housing finance and dwelling commencements.