The economy of Scotland is closely linked with the rest of the United Kingdom and the wider European Economic Area. Scotland has the second largest GVA per capita of countries in the United Kingdom after England, though it is still lower than the average of the United Kingdom as a whole. Revenue from North Sea oil and gas is not included in these figures, if it were it would reveal Scotland with a budget surplus or small deficit.
Scotland was one of the industrial powerhouses of Europe from the time of the Industrial Revolution onwards, being a world leader in manufacturing industries, at the time, which today has left a legacy in the diversity of goods and services which the Scottish economy produces, from textiles, whisky and shortbread to aeroengines, buses, computer software, ships, avionics and microelectronics to banking, insurance, fund management and other related financial services.
In common with most other advanced industrialised economies, Scotland has seen a decline in the importance of the manufacturing industries and primary-based extractive industries. This has, however, been combined with a rise in the service sector of the economy which is now the largest sector in Scotland, with significant rates of growth over the last decade.
The British Pound Sterling is the official currency in Scotland, and the central bank of the UK is the Bank of England which retains responsibility for the monetary policy of the whole of the United Kingdom.
Read more about Economy Of Scotland: Overview, Natural Resources, History, Agriculture and Forestry, Manufacturing, Services, Infrastructure, The Role of The Public Sector, Relationship With The UK, Other Economic Indicators
Famous quotes containing the words economy and/or scotland:
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Four and twenty at her back
And they were a’ clad out in green;
Tho the King of Scotland had been there
The warst o’ them might hae been his Queen.
On we lap and awa we rade
Till we cam to yon bonny ha’
Whare the roof was o’ the beaten gold
And the floor was o’ the cristal a’.”
—Unknown. The Wee Wee Man (l. 21–28)