GDP figures confirm Scotland’s growth is half of the UK’s

4 Apr 2018

New growth figures have confirmed Scotland’s economy only performed half as well as the UK’s over the whole of 2017.

According to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) statistics, growth for Scotland was 0.3 per cent in the final quarter of last year.

That means, for the whole year, the economy grew at 0.8 per cent, compared to the UK figure of 1.7 per cent.

Construction declined again by 2.6 per cent in the last three months, the eight consecutive fall, while agriculture, forestry and fishing also reduced.

Shadow economy secretary Dean Lockhart said the SNP couldn’t blame Brexit or Westminster for the poor performance, and only had itself to blame.

Scottish Conservative shadow economy secretary Dean Lockhart said:

“This is confirmation that Scotland’s economy under the SNP is growing at less than half the rate of the UK economy as a whole.

“That damning statistic is all on the SNP, a party which has been in charge of Scotland’s economy for more than a decade.

“The impact of this is fewer jobs, less investment and lower tax receipts – all of which mean public services suffer.

“The SNP cannot blame anyone else for this.

“It’s not because of Brexit and not because of Westminster – it’s been caused by the actions of a short-sighted, high-tax and anti-business SNP government.”