Today we published our latest Economic Commentary.
Today’s Commentary includes a forward look to tomorrow’s Scottish Budget.
In this blog, we summarise some of the key points from our latest outlook.
Category: FAI Publications
Grant Allan & Stuart McIntyre
http://www.nowcastingscotland.com
Fraser of Allander Institute, University of Strathclyde
With the new Fraser Economic Commentary out next Tuesday, which will provide an in-depth assessment of the performance of the Scottish economy, in this blog we provide our latest nowcasts of GDP growth in Scotland.
- Our nowcast for GVA growth in 2018 Q3 is 0.35% which, at an annual rate, is 1.42%
- Our nowcast for GVA growth in 2018 Q4 is 0.39 which, at an annual rate, is 1.57%
These represent slight downward revisions to our estimates for 2018 Q3 and Q4 released last month.
We will learn the first official estimate of growth in Q3 of 2018 on the 19th of December 2018. Our current nowcast (0.35%) suggests we will see a reduction in the growth rate relative to Q2’s official measure of growth (0.5%).
Since our November nowcast we have had new data on a number of key indicators.
Grant Allan & Stuart McIntyre
http://www.nowcastingscotland.com
Fraser of Allander Institute, University of Strathclyde
Labour Market data released later this morning will provide an update on how the Scottish labour market performed over the three months to the end of September.
In general the labour market has provided good news in recent years, with near record low unemployment and near record high employment. In contrast, economic growth has been weaker.
Recently it appears that growth may be beginning to pick up.
Today we publish our annual Budget report, “Scotland’s Budget 2018” which is available at the following link.
The aim of the report is to set out the opportunities, risks and choices facing the Scottish Government as it prepares it draft budget for 2019/20. The report covers the outlook for the Scottish economy and the Scottish budget.
Each year we also focus on a variety of longer term public finance questions. This year we focus on the options for reforming taxes and introducing new taxes, and discuss the differences in the funding of higher education between Scotland and England.Continue reading
Grant Allan & Stuart McIntyre
http://www.nowcastingscotland.com
Fraser of Allander Institute, University of Strathclyde
Recent economic news on the Scottish economy has struck a slightly more upbeat note about the current pace of economic growth.
This comes on the back of growth over the year to June 2018 – whilst still below average – at its fastest since late 2014/early 2015 and the Scottish economy outpacing the UK for the last two quarters.
While, as set out in our latest Fraser Economic Commentary we remain cautiously optimistic, growth is likely to remain below trend for the duration of our forecast horizon. And overall, the immediate outlook for Scotland’s economy remains highly uncertain.
Against this backdrop, the latest nowcasts of economic growth in Scotland from our nowcasting model have been generated.