The Scottish Government’s most recent gross domestic product estimates revealed Scotland’s rapid return towards economic growth, fuelled by a surge in consumer spending as lockdown restrictions lifted over the summer months, is now starting to slow.
However, the economy overall is continuing to bounce back faster and stronger than was anticipated by many forecasters at this point in recovery. Scottish economic output is now estimated to be just 1.1% below pre-pandemic levels, with the UK economy as a whole sitting a mere 0.6% below the level of February 2020, prior to the first lockdown restrictions coming into force.
Subsequently, Scotland’s business community was immensely relieved when the First Minster took the difficult, but correct decision, last week not to implement a return of Covid-19 restrictions or expansion of the vaccine certification scheme, which would have jeopardised economic recovery and dashed any hopes of a return to pre-pandemic levels of growth early next year.
To keep Scotland’s economy on the right path, towards growth and away from the threat of a return to restrictions, it’s now more important than ever that businesses and individuals continue to follow the relevant Covid-19 restrictions and guidelines that remain in place.
Governments around the world also need to expand vaccine availability and domestic booster rollout should be expanded rapidly as a result of the emerging Omicron variant which public health experts and epidemiologists are currently racing to assess the danger of.
As part of Scotland’s economic recovery, we must continue to prioritise the growth of its export capability. Scotland’s brand is international, our products are known globally for their quality and COP26 has marked us out as a worldwide leader in the energy and renewables sectors, offering the skills and technology that are essential to meeting the pressing challenges of climate change. Next month the Scottish Government is expected to reveal its Budget as well as launching a new “National Strategy for Economic Transformation” which will aim to set out how Scotland can harness innovation and entrepreneurship to create jobs and support business growth over the next decade.
Scotland’s businesses want the Budget and new economic strategy to not only support growth, but to incentivise and support businesses eager and willing to seek out opportunities in international markets and which can drive up Scotland’s exporting capacity.
The Scottish and UK governments together have an opportunity to bolster our economic recovery by building on the success of Scottish business representation at the World Expo currently under way in Dubai.
The Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) Network has been championing Scottish business on the ground at the World Expo, strengthening international connections and building new ones, sending a clear message that Scotland is “open for business”. SCC is playing a vital role in bringing more Scottish businesses to market internationally by providing the necessary platform for Scotland to showcase its skills, expertise and innovation across a range of sectors on the global stage.
Our January and March trade missions will continue to take Scotland to the world, by extolling Scotland’s green energy offering and the best of our people, skills and diversity.
Scotland has the potential to go from strength to strength internationally by continuing to build on the momentum that is now established and the next Scottish Budget must further embolden the development of Scotland as a trading nation.
It’s now more important than ever that the national economic strategies of both the UK and Scotland prioritise international trade and enable Scotland’s businesses to maximise their exporting potential to create a vibrant and growing economy that creates opportunities for us all.
Liz Cameron is chief executive of Scottish Chambers of Commerce
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel