Scottish Secretary Reacts To GDP For Q4 2023 And December 2023

29th February 2024

Alister Jack says boosting business and continuing to drive down inflation is key to long-term growth.

Latest figures show Scotland's onshore GDP is estimated to have grown by 0.4% in December 2023. This follows no growth (0.0% change) in November (revised up from -0.1%) and a 0.8% fall in October (revised from -0.6%).

In the last quarter of 2023, (October to December), GDP is estimated to have contracted by 0.6%, following growth of 0.4% in Quarter 3 (July to September).

Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack said:

The UK Government has halved inflation and, in doing so, we’ve broken down the single biggest barrier to growth. We are sticking to our plan to achieve long-term sustainable recovery.

We are boosting business and encouraging trade and opportunities by investing more than £2.9 billion directly across all parts of Scotland. We’re also putting more money in the pay packets of 2.4 million people in Scotland by cutting National Insurance and rewarding hard-working families with the biggest ever increase to the national living wage from next month.

The combined impact of the Autumn and Spring policy packages is a permanent 0.5% increase in the level of potential output by the end of the OBR’s forecast.

To reward work, we have cut National Insurance for 29 million people worth £9 billion per year, worth £450 for the average employee on £35,400 and £350 for the average self-employed person on £28,200.

Full expensing is the biggest business tax cut in modern British history worth over £50 billion over the next five years - helping companies to invest for less.

Since 2010, the UK has grown faster than France, Japan and Italy, and Germany.

Recent figures have shown that by the end of 2021 the UK had recovered faster from the pandemic than France, Germany, and Japan.