Independent Scotland ‘should want own currency’

The Bloomberg news service is read by financial market figures around the world. Picture: Ian Rutherford

SCOTLAND “would need, and should want” its own separate currency, one of the world’s leading business news outlets has argued.

In an editorial yesterday, Bloomberg knocked back the SNP government’s proposal for a pound-sharing union across the UK after independence, questioning why London would want to get “entangled” in such a deal with a foreign government.

It also warned that a sovereign Scottish state “would resist” the kind of political “union” with the rest of the UK that such a deal would require if it was to succeed.

It follows warnings from economists that a pound-sharing deal would require both Scotland and the rest of the UK to agree strict limits on spending and borrowing to ensure that neither side destabilised the currency.

Based in New York, the Bloomberg news service is read by financial market figures around the world.

In a leader yesterday it declared that many issues surrounding Scottish independence could not be settled until after negotiations took place.

But it added: “One thing, though, should be understood right now: An independent Scotland shouldn’t retain the UK pound.”

Bloomberg also backed the stance of the UK government which has warned that a currency sharing pact after a Yes vote would be “highly unlikely”.

“Last week, the minister for Scotland in the UK government said this wasn’t going to happen. Nor should it.”

It added: “An independent Scotland would need, and should want, its own currency. That’s the proposal the SNP should put to Scotland for its consideration.”

The editorial also acknowledges that a new currency is a “step in the dark, unlikely to appeal to referendum waverers”.

It says the SNP has backed the retention of the pound “to assuage these anxieties and ease the path to a Yes vote.

• Michael Fry: Sterling in Scotland is up to us

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