Economic Armageddon Is Postponed; New Approach to Figures Brightens Outlook

The Herald › February 12, 2004

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Summary

YESTERDAY'S radical rewriting of Scotland's growth story was a quiet affair. Two Scottish Executive economists and three journalists attending the delayed release of the latest figures on the output of the Scottish economy.

In recent times, these quarterly encounters have turned into a game of Spot the Recession. Scottish output growth has looked so anaemic, a slump seemed just around the corner. If the numbers never quite triggered the dreaded R word in headlines, there was always Scotland's lamentable growth performance, compared with the UK as a whole, to fall back on.

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Extract

Economic Armageddon Is Postponed; New Approach to Figures Brightens Outlook

Each quarter's confirmation of that under-performance was seized on uncritically by the executive's political opponents. It was their cue to breast-beat about our lost appetite for competing in the world, a chance to peddle again their own tax-cutting or state- dismantling solu...

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