Glasgow is placed second among 20 UK cities in a league table of economic momentum, with the city’s progress on employment, house prices and population growth flagged.
The latest EvaluateLocate Key Cities Tracker shows Glasgow is behind only Hull in the table. Greater London is in third place, while Edinburgh is sixth and Aberdeen 17th.
The rankings for momentum are based on the change in the EvaluateLocate vitality index for the 12 months to the fourth quarter of last year.
Glasgow’s vitality index saw the second-least-steep fall among the 20 UK cities, falling by 2.7% over the period. Hull saw a decline of 1.8%, and Edinburgh and Aberdeen recorded respective falls of 3.3% and 5.3%.
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EvaluateLocate director Adam Kirby said: “Glasgow is in the lead for Scotland’s economy right now. In a technical recession, this doesn’t mean that things are already getting rosier - more that the Glaswegian economy is weathering the storm best among Scotland’s main cities. By comparison, Edinburgh and Aberdeen are still further from a positive growth number.
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“Some key individual metrics for Glasgow are already going the right way. On our nowcast to February we see the number of jobs in Glasgow up 3% from a year ago, residential property prices beating inflation by +2% and population growth towards +1% per year - which is twice our number for population growth in Scotland as a whole. If unemployment keeps tracking down, business starts begin to follow upwards and inflation provides a friendlier background, then economic spring could be just around the corner for Glasgow.”
Mr Kirby highlighted the fact that “looking across the UK, Greater Glasgow is outranking Greater London for momentum and only second to Hull”.
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He added: “This paints a picture of a return to growth coming from all corners of the British isles rather than just the core service economy or the stereotypical engine of the south-east of England. While the official news about a recession in the last quarter of 2023 might seem a recent downer, the picture into 2024 is not as gloomy as those trailing figures suggest - and things are looking particularly strong right now on the Clyde.”
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