Fifth-richest nation SNP claim ‘false’

By ANDREW WHITAKER
Published on 19/07/2012 00:54

THE SNP’s claim that an independent Scotland would be the fifth-richest nation in the world has been challenged by a leading think-tank.

It says the way economic output is measured gives a false
picture of how wealthy the country’s economy would be.

A report from the Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR) says the Scottish Government fails to record how much of the wealth produced in the economy ends up overseas when it publishes GDP figures.

The CPPR talked about what it claimed were “omissions” in the figures, which it said had to be filled ahead of the 2014 independence referendum to allow Scots a true picture of how a separate Scotland would fare economically.

North Sea oil and gas revenues are worth billions of pounds to Scotland’s economy annually, but the GDP figures do not record how much of that was taken out of the economy by overseas energy companies.

The report said that if the Scottish Government used gross 
national product (GNP), like most other nations, then an 
independent Scotland would be about the 15th-richest country in the world.