Monthly GDP background information

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the broadest summary measure of economic activity, covering the activities of households, businesses and government as both producers and consumers.

The monthly estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 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 seasonally adjusted and presented in real terms (adjusted to remove inflation), and relate to Scotland’s onshore economy (which does not include offshore oil and gas extraction).

Changes in GDP for the whole economy are estimated using the output of each industry. Monthly estimates were initially developed during 2020 as a faster indicator of the changes in output to help monitor the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and policies in place to curtail its spread. The ongoing production of the statistics is intended to assist with analysis of the economy, including short term modelling and forecasting.