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Scots Outstrip Britain’s Growth

Scotland’s economy is estimated to have grown by 0.4% in Q1.
Scotland’s economy is estimated to have grown by 0.4% in Q1.

Scotland’s economy performed better than previously thought at the start of the year, according to official figures.

The country’s chief statistician said the economy was now estimated to have grown by 0.4% in the first three months of the year, BBC reported.

That is an increase from the 0.2% that was previously estimated. It is also higher than the 0.2% growth in Britain as a whole over the same period.

Revised figures mean that Scotland’s GDP grew by 1.3% between the first quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2018. This was marginally higher than the 1.2% growth in the UK economy over the year.

Upturn at the start of the year was largely driven by manufactured exports, with a 3.6% increase in goods being sold around the world.

Output in the service sector grew by 0.4% and in the production sector by 1.0%, but the construction sector saw a fall of 1.4%, although this has been revised up from a first estimate of -3.5% because of “data updates and methodology improvements”.

Scotland’s finance secretary, Derek Mackay, said the figures were “hugely encouraging”, but repeated his call for the UK to remain in the EU single market and customs union after Brexit “to protect jobs and investment and remove unnecessary uncertainty which could harm Scotland’s economic prosperity.”

The figures also estimated that the value of Scotland’s onshore GDP was £156.5 billion($198.7 billion) in total, or £28,797 per person, in the financial year 2017-18.

This rises to £170 billion in total, or £31,367 per person, when a geographical share of the UK’s oil and gas industry is included.

Britain’s GDP grew by 0.4% in the second quarter of the year, but the equivalent Scottish figures have not yet been released.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.2% in the three months between April and June. The Office for National Statistics said 115,000 people were looking for work, down from 118,000 in the prior months.

The number of Scots aged 16 to 64 who are in employment rose by 17,000, to a working-age rate of 75.2%

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