Scotland's economy sees half the rate of UK growth at 0.3%

Scotland's economy has fallen behind the  UK-wide picture, despite growth of 0.3% north of the border, the latest official figures show.

Growth in Scotland has fallen behind the UK-wide picture

This is just half the rate of 0.6% which the UK enjoyed between July and September. Over the year, Scottish growth matched the UK figure of 1.5% according to the official figures.

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay said: “GDP has increased for the fifth consecutive quarter and, when compared to the same period last year, has increased by 1.5%.

During the third quarter of 2018 output in the Services sector grew by 0.3%, output in Production contracted by -0.7% and output in the Construction sector grew by 2.7%.

It comes as new figures from Business Enterprise Research & Development (BERD) show that expenditure in Scotland in 2017 was £1.247 billion – the highest level since 2001 and up by 13.9% on 2016.

This research and development spending in Scotland was predominantly split between manufacturing products (£594 million or 47.6% of the total) and services products (£560 million or 44.9% of the total).