Monthly GDP Estimates for April

Scotland’s onshore GDP contracted by 0.5% in April, according to statistics announced by the Chief Statistician. This follows a 0.1% contraction in March 2023 (revised down from a 0.0% change). Output is above the pre-pandemic level of February 2020, by 0.7%.

In the three months to April, GDP is estimated to have grown by 0.2% compared to the previous three month period.

Output in the services sector, which accounts for around three quarters of the economy, contracted by 0.6% in April. At the broad level, output in consumer facing services grew by 0.2%, while health, education and public services output contracted by 0.3%, and output in all other services contracted by 1.0%.

Background

The latest publication is available online.

All results are seasonally adjusted and presented in real terms (adjusted to remove inflation). GDP growth relates to Scotland’s onshore economy, which means it does not include the output of offshore oil and gas extraction.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the output of the economy in Scotland. The monthly estimates have been developed to help track the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These are designated as experimental official statistics. This means that they are still in development but have been released to enable their use at an early stage. All results are provisional and subject to relatively high levels of uncertainty.

Further information on GDP statistics is available online.

These estimates are compiled in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics