SCOTTISH growth in the first quarter has been revised down marginally, from 0.8 per cent to 0.7 per cent, but is nevertheless more than three times the rate of expansion in the UK as a whole.
The revision to first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth north of the Border was made in quarterly national accounts, published yesterday by the Scottish Government. The UK grew by only 0.2 per cent in the first quarter, amid a consumer squeeze triggered by the surge in inflation caused by sterling’s post-Brexit vote weakness.
Stephen Boyle, chief economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, said: “Confirmation Scotland grew strongly in the first three months of the year is very welcome following two years of weakness.”
Scottish GDP in the first quarter was up only 0.6 per cent on a year earlier. First-quarter UK GDP was up two per cent year-on-year.
Scottish manufacturing output surged by 3.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to March. Mining and quarrying output, which Mr Boyle noted took in the offshore oil and gas sector’s onshore supply chain, grew 2.8 per cent.
Services output grew 0.4 per cent in Scotland and by 0.1 per cent UK-wide in the first quarter.
Mr Boyle said: “The apparent stabilisation of the oil and gas supply chain is good news for a sector that has had to adjust to lower oil prices.”
He added: “Growth in the dominant services sector – three-quarters of the economy – was a more modest 0.4 per cent. As in the rest of the UK, services in Scotland will have been affected by the squeeze on consumers’ spending...from higher inflation and weak wage growth.”
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