Scotlands GDP Falls Again - Monthly GDP Estimates For May

27th July 2023

Scotland's onshore GDP fell by 0.2% in May, according to statistics announced today by the Chief Statistician. This follows an unrevised fall of 0.5% in April and a revised fall of 0.3% in March.

In May, output in the services sector, which accounts for around three quarters of the economy, is estimated to have grown by 0.1%, after falling by 0.4% in April. Production sector output fell by 2.1% in May, with the fall of 9.7% in electricity and gas supply making the largest negative contribution to the overall GDP result.

In the three months to May, GDP is estimated to have fallen by 0.4% compared to the previous three month period. This reflects a decline in the economy during the second quarter of 2023 so far, after the downwardly revised growth of 0.2% in Quarter 1 2023 (January to March) reported in the Quarterly National Accounts also released today.

In other statistics released today, annual labour productivity is estimated to have grown by 2.0% in 2022, and is 0.4% below the pre-pandemic level in 2019. Over the longer term since the financial crisis, between 2008 and 2022, productivity in Scotland has increased by an average of 1.0% per year.

All results are seasonally adjusted and presented in real terms (adjusted to remove inflation). GDP and productivity growth relate to Scotland's onshore economy, which means they does not include the output of offshore oil and gas extraction.