Publication - Statistics

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Quarterly National Accounts: 2020 Quarter 2

Published: 28 October 2020
Directorate: Chief Economist Directorate
Topic: Economy

This publication includes the updated second estimate of onshore GDP growth in real terms for the second quarter of 2020 (April to June), along with additional breakdowns of GDP by categories of income and expenditure, and key household sector economic statistics.

Headline results

Scotland’s GDP is estimated to have fallen by 19.4% in real terms during the second quarter of 2020, unrevised from the first estimate published in September. This follows contraction of 3.2% in the previous quarter. The equivalent results for the UK as a whole were contractions of 19.8% and 2.5% in these periods.
Compared to the same quarter last year, Scotland’s GDP has fallen by 21.9%, revised down from the first estimate of 21.1%. The equivalent UK fall over the year was 21.5%.

Information about this release

This publication provides updated estimates of GDP in real terms (i.e. adjusted for inflation) during the April to June period, together with new estimates for the quarter which break down GDP into components of expenditure and income. The coronavirus pandemic has led to a number of challenges in collecting and processing the data to calculate GDP. As a result, estimates for this quarter are subject to more uncertainty than usual and may be more prone to revision over time.

About the GDP Quarterly National Accounts

This publication includes the second estimate of onshore GDP growth for 2020 Quarter 2 (April-June), which uses additional data released since the GDP First Estimate published on 16 September. The results in this release are comparable to the UK Quarterly National Accounts for Quarter 2 published on 30 September.

This publication also includes routine updates to data for previous quarters. Estimates of GDP growth in real terms have been open for revision back to 2019 Quarter 1, while components of GDP by Income and Expenditure have also been open to revision back to 2017 Quarter 1.

In addition to the second estimate of onshore growth in real terms, the GDP Quarterly National Accounts also includes:

Total GDP in nominal (cash) terms for the onshore economy and also the wider economy including offshore activities
Onshore GDP in nominal terms broken down using all three of the output, expenditure and income approaches
Experimental statistics estimates of the expenditure approach to GDP in real terms
Household Sector income and expenditure accounts for Scotland, including Gross Disposable Household Income (GDHI) and the Household Savings Ratio
Public sector revenues.

Data

The publication includes a short summary of key results from the latest statistics. Full results for all components are available in the downloadable tables below

Correction: 5 November 2020 - Some of the data in the supplemtary tables download was found to incorrect and not consistent with the rest of the release. This has now been corrected. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.