Outlook and appraisal [September 1999]

At the beginning of September the Scottish Executive published a new quarterly series of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Scotland. This is an important development in the statistical base of the Scottish economy and is to be welcomed. The new series introduces for the first time quarterly data on the service sector, which accounts for 63 percent of Scottish GDP. Before the publication of this new series, analysis of quarterly movements in the Scottish economy had to rely principally on the official production and construction series, covering only about 34 percent of Scottish GDP. Judgements about the performance of the service sector were based on the survey data provided by the Deloitte & Touche, Scottish Chambers' Business Survey.