Scottish cities show mixed form

Edinburgh has slipped further down a league table of global financial centres but Glasgow has recovered some of the ground it lost last year.

The latest Global Financial Centres Index, which rates cities on their "attractiveness and competitiveness" within the finance sector, placed Edinburgh at 31 - down three on last year - and Glasgow at 46, up six places.

Both cities had seen their ratings under the index plummet a year earlier following the credit crunch while Asian cities including Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing all rose rapidly.

According to the survey - one of a number which rate financial and business centres around the world - London has retained the number one spot followed by New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Owen Kelly, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, said: "It is interesting to see the movement of Glasgow up the rankings scale and the very slight decrease in Edinburgh's ranking.

"In themselves these changes don't tell us much but to have two cities from Scotland in the top 46 financial centres in the world reinforces the importance of the financial services industry in Scotland, and shows just how much the country punches above its weight on the global financial stage."

The Global Financial Centres Index assesses locations on factors including taxation, government support for the financial sector and diversity of the companies within the industry.