THE latest Scottish growth figures were about as good as we could have expected, under the circumstances.

In this context, the circumstances are those arising from the UK electorate’s Brexit vote and the aftermath, specifically the protracted dampening impact on both the business and household sectors.

Scotland’s economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, slightly ahead of the 0.2% expansion in the UK as a whole.

The manufacturing sector north of the Border struggled, achieving growth of only 0.1%. However, the key services sector achieved 0.5% expansion quarter-on-quarter in the final three months of last year and construction output increased by 0.8%

Over 2018, Scotland and the UK as a whole recorded growth of 1.4%.

Economist John McLaren, who runs the Scottish Trends website, noted that Scottish growth had been broadly on a par with expansion in the UK as a whole in 2017 and 2018, after a weak performance in the previous two years amid the oil and gas sector downturn.

The great pity is that the bounce-back in Scotland’s growth rate – after the economy was laid low by the North Sea downturn and its knock-on effects – has been hampered so severely by the Conservative Government’s Brexit drive.