ECONOMISTS have warned that Scotland is suffering "worrying signs" from the impact of falling oil revenues, as figures show its growth over the past eight years has lagged far behind the UK average.
The latest update on Scottish Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shows that the Scottish economy has grown in cash terms by only four per cent since the 2008 recession, in contrast to a UK-wide growth of almost 23 per cent.
The Quarterly National Accounts Scotland bulletin incorporates the final three months of 2015, allowing analysis of the year as a whole for the first time.
It shows that, as a whole, Scotland's onshore economy grew by two per cent in cash terms while the overall economy - combining onshore and offshore - fell by one per cent.
Economist John McLaren, an honourary professor at the Adam Smith Business School at Glasgow University who runs the Scottish Trends website, said the findings highlight the Scottish economy's far greater dependency on declining North Sea fortunes.
He said: “Scotland’s economy continues to show worrying signs of North Sea related distress.
"Due to falling oil revenues, overall Scottish Public Sector revenues were lower in 2015 than at the height of the downturn in 2008.
"There has also been a virtual standstill in GDP per capita since 2008 which has resulted in it falling below the level seen for the UK.
"The worsening trade position, largely with respect to the UK, is also a big worry, especially the fall in exports last year to the rest of the UK.”
In 2015, GDP growth in Scotland declined by one per cent while the UK as a whole recorded growth of 2.6 per cent.
GDP, a measure of the monetary value of all the goods and services produced by a country within a fixed period, has grown far more slowly in Scotland since 2008 than the UK average.
In 2008, Scotland's GDP per head was £3,590 higher than the UK average, at £28,169 per head.
By last year, that had increased by £216 to £28,385, but over the same period the UK had overtaken Scotland and by 2015 UK GDP was outstripping Scotland by £249 per head.
Total Scottish Public Sector revenues, combining both onshore and offshore, have fell for the fourth year in a row in 2015 and are now five per cent lower than they were in 2011 - or nearly 12 per cent lower once adjusted for inflation.
Year-on-year, Scottish Public Service Revenues fell by £214 million between the final quarter of 2014 and the same period in 2015. The decrease was driven by declining North Sea receipts outpacing the rise in onshore receipts.
The trade in goods and services in Scotland is also broken down, showing that Scotland is importing more from the rest of the UK than it exports to England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This deteriorating trade position was a key factor in Scotland's growing deficit in 2015, which ballooned to almost £15 billion - well above the previous record annual deficit of £11.7 billion seen in 2007, and more than £5 billion worse than the deficit in 2013.
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