Scottish Economy

I still wonder if some of our more rural regions would be able to achieve more prosperity if they had the power to vary local rates and incentives more actively. This is certainly part of the thinking behind the argument for an independent Scotland. This article tells us:

The Scottish economy grew faster than the UK as a whole in the first three months of 2014, recovering all the growth lost during the recession.

The country grew 1pc in the first quarter as activity in its manufacturing sector surged, data from the Scottish government revealed.

This compares with a 0.8pc rise in GDP for the entire UK, which was still 0.6pc smaller during the period than in 2008, before the downturn.

However, the UK had to cope with a much worse recession, with a peak-to-trough GDP fall of 5.2pc in 2008/9, compared with Scotland’s 4.4pc.

Growth north of the border has been boosted by a 2.1pc jump in overall industrial production, as factory ouptut climbed 3.4pc. Construction contracted by 1pc, while services grew by 0.9pc.