This blog summarises some of the key headline results.
Some background
GERS estimates the contribution of public sector revenue raised in Scotland toward the public sector goods and services provided for the benefit of Scotland. The estimates typically cause significant controversy, and our blog highlighted some of the usual areas of debate.
These arguments are not going to go away, but the GERS figures present the most reasonable approximation to help us understand the nature and extent of public spending and revenue in Scotland in the latest financial year.Continue reading
Next week (Wednesday 22nd August) will see the annual publication of the GERS statistics.
As usual, it’ll no doubt spark a frenzied debate about Scotland’s finances and the prospects for constitutional change. If you can’t bear the hullabaloo and choose to avoid social media for a week here’s a quick summary:
The Sustainable Growth Commission has published its report into the economic options open to an independent Scotland.
In 2014, all sides agreed that Scotland ‘could’ be an independent country. Of course, where opinion differed – and continues to diverge – is over the costs and benefits of independence.
The economy was seen as a key area of challenge for the ‘yes’ side in 2014. To counter this, the Scottish Government sought to strengthen its position by offering a vision of relative economic continuity post-independence.
Today’s report offers a different proposition.
In this – slightly longer than usual – blog we provide an overview and offer some thoughts on where the debate should go next.
With the new GERS figures released (here), the debate around the usefulness for, and relevance of, this publication to the constitutional debate has kicked off again.
On the back of this, we have been asked about the significance of the ‘for’ vs. ‘in’ methodology GERS uses to calculate public spending.
