Monthly GDP Estimates for February

Scotland’s onshore GDP grew by 0.4% in February, according to statistics announced by the Chief Statistician. Output remains above the pre-pandemic level of February 2020, by 1.3%.

Output in the services sector, which accounts for around three quarters of the economy, grew by 0.7% in February. At the broad level, output in consumer facing services grew by 2.1%, while health, education and public services output fell by 1.2%, and output in all other services increased by 1.3%.

Output in the production sector grew by 0.3% in February, while construction sector output fell by 0.1%.

In the three months to February, GDP is estimated to have grown by 1.1% compared to the previous three month period. This indicates a slight slowdown in growth in Quarter 1 so far, after an increase of 1.3% in 2021 Quarter 4 (October to December).

Background

The latest publication can be read in full here.

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.

Read further information on GDP statistics here.

These estimates are compiled in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics – more information on the standards of official statistics can be accessed here.