Which State Tops National SME Revenue Growth Forecasts?

(29 October 2024 – Australia) Queensland SMEs have brushed aside the uncertainty of a State election to surge to the top of the national rankings for projected business growth, ScotPac reports.

84 percent of SMEs in Queensland are forecasting a jump in revenue to March 2025, by a remarkable average of 11%. Only 9% of the State’s SMEs are predicting a revenue decline. SMEs in Western Australia, with comparable exposure to Australia’s thriving resources and domestic tourism markets, were the next most enthusiastic about the future. At the other end of the scale, just 28 percent of Victorian SMEs were banking on short-term revenue growth.

The insights are contained in the latest round of ScotPac’s SME Growth Index Report, Australia’s longest-running sentiment check of SME attitudes towards growth based on direct interviews with 726 SMEs with annual revenues of A$1-20 million conducted by East & Partners.

“The widening chasm in SME revenue projections again proved the Australian economy was made up of many diverse regional markets. The remarkable positivity of Queensland SMEs is being fuelled by a growing population and increased demand for the State’s abundant natural resources” stated ScotPac CEO Jon Sutton.

“That is driving our national economy and propping up other markets that are struggling with rising wages, cost of living pressures and weakened consumer demand. The net result is that the resilience and agility of Australia’s SMEs is again on full display, with a majority of businesses expecting a bounce in revenue to go hand in glove with anticipated falls in inflation and interest rates next year” Mr Sutton added.

“ScotPac provides support for more than 8,900 businesses in Australia and New Zealand, spanning every location across a wide variety of traditional and emerging sectors. from simple to complex, large to small, ScotPac has a lending solution. Whatever their situation, SMEs should talk to their brokers and advisers regularly about the growing range of tailored working capital options available to support their specific needs” Mr Sutton said.