Exports showing the way for Scotland’s business recovery

SCOTLAND’s exports are forging ahead, although the country’s wider economic recovery remains “slow and moderate”, according to a new survey out today.

The Lloyds TSB Scotland business monitor says the exports picture is “much more encouraging” than the domestic one.

It says that of firms surveyed for the three months to August, a positive net balance of 10 per cent say exports have increased. This compares with plus 3 per cent in the previous quarter, and plus 2 per cent in the same three months of 2010. Lloyds say it is the second-best exports performance in four years.

Anne MacColl, chief executive of Scottish Development International, commented: “This report backs up everything we believe about the importance of encouraging Scottish firms to export and become more internationally ambitious.”

On the wider business front, however, the Lloyds Business monitor’s results show that good and bad news is cancelling itself out, underlining the fragile economic recovery.

Just over a third of Scottish firms surveyed increased turnover in the latest quarter, the same amount experienced a decrease, while 32 per cent had static sales.

“This gave a net balance of 0 per cent, a very slight deterioration from the plus 2 per cent of the previous quarter but a significant improvement on the minus 7 per cent of the same quarter one year ago,” the survey says.

l The number of UK business failures is forecast to fall over a fifth to 20,536 in 2015 compared with a peak of 26,196 in 2009, says the latest Industry Watch report out today from accountants and business consultants BDO. However, BDO says squeezed UK households remain a primary reason for the slow recovery.