Scotland braves recession better than rest of UK
Scotland has weathered the recent recession better than most parts of the UK, according to national income figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics. The latest ONS regional GVA report shows that 2009 is the first year to see a reduction in gross value added (GVA) numbers across all regions since the start of the series in 1989.
Regional GVA figures, which measure the contribution of each region to the UK economy, show that Scotland had the smallest drop of the 12 UK regions.
ONS statistician Fred Norris said: “East of England saw the biggest fall, with GVA per head dropping by 4%, while Scotland saw the smallest decline, dropping by 1.4%. London still had the largest GVA per head at £34,200, more than twice that in Wales, which had the lowest at £14,842, similar to the picture in 2008.”
Scotland’sGVA per head came in at £19,744 – much higher than Wales and Northern Ireland at £15,795, but well below the UK economic powerhouse of London and South-east England at £20,923.
Looking at GVA since 1989, Scotland had 96% of the UK total but this had grown to 98.9% by 2009 – an indication that the economy north of the border has shown considerable strength over the past 20 years or so.
The ONS report was more bullish than the Fraser of Allander Institute. It said the recovery north of the border will continue to trail that of the wider UK in coming years, and billions of pounds of welfare cuts will hit growth in 2012.
Fraser of Allander, part of Strathclyde University, calculated that increased welfare cuts announced by Chancellor George Osborne in October could by 2014/15 be taking £2 billion per year out of the Scottish economy through reduced household spending.
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