Oil, Gas Will Help Scottish Economy Grow in 2018

Oil, Gas Will Help Scottish Economy Grow in 2018
Scotland's economy is expected to continue growing in 2018, supported by an improved outlook for the oil and gas sector.

Scotland’s economy is expected to continue growing in 2018, supported by an improved outlook for the oil and gas sector, according to the country’s latest state of the economy report.

Independent forecasts highlighted in the document suggest that GDP growth will be between 0.7 and 1.3 percent in 2017 and between 0.7 and 1.4 percent in 2018. Oil and gas related production activities are expected to help drive productivity growth this year as the labour market remains tight.

“The latest report further demonstrates the resilience of the Scottish economy during 2017 with encouraging signals of a slightly stronger outlook for the coming year,” the Scottish government’s economy secretary, Keith Brown, said in a government statement.

“While growth has been more modest than we would have liked, we’ve seen growth in the services sector and a welcome return to growth in the production sector, which continues to be supported by the pick-up in economic sentiment in the oil and gas sector,” he added.

The production sector grew 2.6 percent from the third quarter (3Q) of 2016 to 3Q 2017, according to the report. During this time, Scottish GDP grew by 0.6 percent. Annual GDP growth for the UK year on year in 3Q was 1.7 percent.

 

 

Scotland’s state of the economy report is produced three times a year by the chief economic adviser to provide a picture of the Scottish economy in the context of the UK and international economies.

This year’s report highlighted that the range of independent forecasts was notably wider than in recent years, reflecting the uncertainty of post-EU access conditions in relation to trade, services, investment and skills.

The UK is expected to leave the European Union in March 2019, following a referendum which took place in June 2016.



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