Productivity in Scotland continued to outperform the UK during 2015.
Official Figures just published show that output per hour worked in Scotland grew 3.5% in 2015, compared to a UK figure of 0.9%.
Over the longer term, output per hour worked is now 9.4% higher in real terms than in 2007, prior to the recession. In 2015, UK productivity was only 0.1% higher than its 2007 level.
Scottish productivity, traditionally lower than the UK, reached 99.9% of UK levels in 2015.
Welcoming the figures, Kenneth Gibson said:
“These figures show that Scotland’s productivity is growing four times faster than the UK, providing further evidence of Scotland’s economic strength. Scotland is now matching UK levels of productivity.
“This is very welcome news and through our commitment in our Economic Strategy to support innovation, enhance skills and develop our infrastructure we will continue to work to improve this further.
“We are taking forward our £500m Scottish Growth Scheme, by investing in our infrastructure plan and by supporting our universities and research base. We will also continue to strive to support the Scottish economy by protecting our place in Europe’s single market, with the substantial benefits this will have for our economic well-being.”
The labour productivity statistics can be found here.
ENDS
