Statistics published by the Scottish Government this morning show that the Scottish economy contracted by 2.5% in the first quarter of 2020. However, other official figures suggest that the Scottish economy shrunk by around a fifth in March and April 2020.
Andrew McRae, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Scotland policy chair, said: “In normal circumstances, a quarterly contraction of the economy on this scale would be cause for alarm. While these figures are obviously not good news, they don’t show the amount of economic damage caused by the shutdown in the late spring and summer.
“It looks likely that we’ll not be able to understand the overall impact of the coronavirus pandemic for months if not years. But if we look at other economic crises, we see that smaller firms were critically important to the recovery. Policymakers must independent firms and smaller firms at the heart of their plans for jobs, growth and local communities.”
ENDS
- The official quarterly economic statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/news/gdp-quarterly-national-accounts-for-2020-quarter-1/ Experimental monthly figures can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/monthly-gdp-may-2020/
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