GDP figures are useless
According to the latest GDP figures, Scotland’s economy only grew by 0.8% in 2017 while the UK figure was 1.8%. The Scotsman and the Herald responded with:
‘Scots growth lags behind UK with fears of no U-turn’
‘Scotland’s economy continues to lag behind the rest of the UK, as critics take aim at SNP’
Even if Scotland’s GDP figures were accurate, they’d still tell us very little about the health of our economy and I suspect the critics know this, but GDP remains a convenient stick to beat the SNP with so there’s no way they’re putting it down.
I written this several times, but it needs repeating:
First, even the DAVOS elite have turned against GDP. As far back as 2016 they said:
‘Three leading economists and academics at Davos agree: GDP is a poor way of assessing the health of our economies and we urgently need to find a new measure. Speaking in different sessions, IMF head Christine Lagarde, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, and MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson stressed that as the world changes, so too should the way we measure progress. A country’s GDP is an estimate of the total value of goods and services they produce. But even when the concept was first developed back in the late 1930s, the man behind it, Simon Kuznets, warned it was not a suitable measure of a country’s economic development: “He understood that GDP is not a welfare measure, it is not a measure of how well we are all doing. It counts the things that we’re buying and selling, but it’s quite possible for GDP to go in the opposite direction of welfare.”’
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/gdp/
Secondly, from Manchester University:
‘The official statisticians are not the only people who think the quarterly ritual of City economists and commentators making a song and dance about the headline change in GDP – is it 0.2% or 0.3% – is a nonsense. The figure for the change every three months is the outcome of a very complicated process of collecting data from many different sources, adjusting it for seasonal changes, summing it, adjusting for inflation and so on. The inevitable margin of error is sometimes bigger than the headline number. Revisions occur frequently. With hindsight, recessions can be revised away.’
http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/featured/2015/01/time-to-ditch-gdp-as-a-measure-of-economic-well-being/
Thirdly, from real professor Richard Murphy at City University in London:
‘There will, no doubt, be those saying that low GDP growth (and none in terms of GDP per head) is bad news for Scotland. This, though, assumes that, first of all the GDP data is right, and second that GDP matters. There is no way we can be sure that the GDP data for Scotland is right because the calculation of GDP requires accurate data on imports and exports from Scotland and all experts agree that Scotland does not have that information. In that case whether or not the data is accurate depends upon whether or not a fair proportion of estimates to and from Scotland to the rest of the world, as well as to and from the rest of the UK, are correctly estimated. I have my doubts about this and explained why to the Scottish Parliament last year……We now know that GDP is a poor indication of well-being. In particular, the share of wages in GDP has been falling steadily over time whilst that of profits has been rising…..The Scottish Government would be wise to adopt increases in median pay as its economic goal and stop worrying about the nearly meaningless Scottish GDP measure that is beloved only by those who do not seem to have the best interests of Scottish people at heart.’
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/about/
The above are only three, from a host of commentaries, debunking the value of GDP. Try Googling for ‘GDP no good professor’ and you’ll have more than any of has the time to read, from many ‘leading’ thinkers. Finally, real evidence that the Scottish economy is robust can be found in a wide range of indicators reported here in previous months. See, for example:
Scottish economy is thriving on innovation as patent filing runs at 4 times the UK rate
And more evidence of a strong economy: starting salaries in Scotland increase at quickest rate for more than 3 years
Scottish Chambers of Commerce survey suggests 2018 will be a good year for the Scottish Economy
17% increase in number of Scots planning to start a new business as Scottish economy strengthens
Reports of a strong Scottish economy just keep coming. Now debt decrees down 93% in the last three months
Clear signs of a robust economy? 15% increase in Edinburgh office take-up in 2017 and Glasgow set for a ‘stellar 12 months.’
Scottish businesses continue to show signs of health with insolvencies down 23% as the Scottish economy holds strong
The Auditor General strongly, with no qualifications, commends the Scottish Government on its ‘sound’ management of the economy. The lowest under-spend since devolution.
With only 8% of the population, Scotland’s maritime sector accounts for 25% of the UK maritime sector’s (GVA) contribution to the economy and is 17.5% more productive than the UK marine oil and gas sector. Once more, too wee, too poor?
12% increase in the formation of social enterprises in Scotland over only 2 years leads to a £2 billion economic contribution to Scottish economy.
England runs massive trade deficit. Only Scotland has a viable sustainable economy, exporting more than she imports thus requiring no national debt
To my knowledge, none of the above made the mainstream media in Scotland. I could give you more.
Despite this, the Scottish media continue to use these unreliable and inappropriate figures to undermine the case for Scottish independence because they’re all they have.
Talking-up Scotland 