Monthly GDP Estimates for November

Scotland’s onshore GDP grew by 0.8% in November, according to statistics announced today by the Chief Statistician. Output is now back above the pre-pandemic level of February 2020 for the first time, by 0.6%.

Output in the services sector, which accounts for around three quarters of the economy, grew by 0.5% in November, with increases in nine of the fourteen subsectors. At the broad level, output in consumer facing services was flat in November (0.0% growth), and health, education and public services output fell by 0.1%, while output in all other services increased by 0.9%.

Output in the production sector, which accounts for around 16% of the economy, grew by 1.7% in November. There was growth in three of the four subsectors, including growth of 1.7% in the manufacturing subsector.

Output in the construction sector, which accounts for around 6% of the economy is estimated to have grown by 3.6% in November.

In the three months to November, GDP is estimated to have grown by 1.3% compared to the previous three month period (June - August). This reflects a slight pickup in growth during the fourth quarter so far, relative to the increase of 1.0% in Quarter 3 (July to September).

Background

November 2021 publication

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

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