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Scottish economy prospects present a cause for concern

WHEN the best news from the latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) figures is that the country did not go as deeply into the red as the rest of the UK and this coincides with a downgrading of the economic forecast by academics, there is little basis for optimism.

The Gers report shows that Scotland's spending outstripped income by £7.6 billion in the financial year 2011/12. The translation of this by Finance Secretary John Swinney into Scots being better off by £824 per person, compared with those in the rest of the UK, offered cold comfort even without the claim by Scottish Secretary Michael Moore that the economy of an independent Scotland would be reliant on volatile oil revenues.

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Finance

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