Exports from Scotland have fallen back over the last year, despite an increase in the most recent quarter, new figures have revealed.
The volume of goods that were sold overseas increased in the July to September period, growing by 1.8% from the previous quarter.
But when looking at export performance over the previous 12 months, the Scottish Government statistics showed a fall of 0.5%.
The bulk of the growth in the third quarter of last year came from the refined petroleum, chemical and pharmaceutical products (RPCPP) sector, which was up 8.9% over the three months.
The volume of exports from food and drink was also up by 0.6% over the period.
Both the RPCPP sector and the food and drinks industry saw exports fall over the last four quarters, with decreases of 8.3% and 4.5% respectively.
Exports from wood, paper and printing were also down over the year by 3.6%.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: "Today's figures show that two of the largest exporting industries - refined petroleum, chemical and pharmaceutical products and food and drink - enjoyed the third consecutive quarter of expansion."
He added: "These statistics follow on from the Scottish Government's Global Connections Survey published on Monday which showed that Scotland's exported goods and services were worth a record £27.9 billion in 2013, a rise of 7.2% on the previous year.
"Scotland's economic recovery has grown continuously for two years and recent GDP figures show that the Scottish economy grew at its fastest annual rate since 2007.
"Labour market statistics published this month also show that the number of people in employment in Scotland has increased by 50,000 over the year, reaching a record high."
Liz Cameron, chief executive of Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said the latest figures showed "a strong performance by our manufacturing businesses even against a backdrop of significant economic issues facing a number of our key international markets".
She added: "Businesses are also telling us that they expect a further pick-up in international trade in 2015.
"There is a good deal of optimism in the manufacturing sector and this has to be good news for the Scottish economy.
"Added to this is the fact that over a third of our exports are from our service sector, and with these businesses also expecting a pick-up in 2015 the outlook is very promising indeed."
Given this, Ms Cameron said: "The message to government is clear: as we face elections at a Scottish and UK level over the next two years, and as measures to extend devolved decision-making to Scotland proceed, business needs a stable framework to invest and develop our international connectivity, whatever the outcomes of the general and Scottish elections."
Scotland Office Minister David Mundell said: "It's encouraging to see Scottish businesses excelling across the globe.
"This shows our companies are making the most of the global reach, access to the most competitive export finance offer in Europe and economic security and stability which comes from being part of the UK.
"Scotland has many great export success stories and, with our economy set to continue to grow in 2015 and build on two successive years of economic growth, we have a platform to create many more.
"Through having access to UK Trade & Investment's network covering 169 offices in over 100 markets and an export finance package of £3 billion, we will ensure Scotland's companies have substantial support and are front and centre of the UK Government's overall aim to increase UK exports to £1 trillion by 2020."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article