Early last month HMRC published new regional trade statistics for 2017 by region and nation of the UK.
In this blog, we look at these data and highlight some interesting trends and issues.
Category: Trade
Boosting Scottish exports has been a goal of all Scottish administrations whatever their political make-up.
Back in 2011, the Scottish Government set a target to grow international exports by 50% by 2017. This was an admirable target, and growing our international exports has taken on even greater significance with Brexit.
Nevertheless, if you set targets you also need to measure progress against them. And today’s Export Statistics Scotland figures provide an opportunity to do that.
In short, without unprecedented growth in 2017 – which seems unlikely – Scotland is on track to miss its 2011 export target by a relatively wide margin.