THE great thing about the latest GERS figures is that they are moving in the right direction. The aggregates of income and expenditure revealed in the report are by any standards approximate, if not speculative, so the most important aspect to notice is the underlying trend. And the trend is at last in Scotland’s favour.
Since practically all governments in the western world have been running deficits, the financial markets separate the sheep from the goats by noting how far individual countries have been progressing towards stability in their accounts. Scotland, though not yet independent and in control of its own position, has clearly been making the right kind of progress.
With figures like these, a future Scottish government would be better placed to attract lenders interested in investing in our country. They would also be more likely to offer us a lower rate of interest, and so cut the cost of further programmes of public capital expenditure.
Another major point is that this sort of achievement needs to be sustained. Official statistics can be erratic, and Scotland should show that it has the policies in place to keep up the good work of deficit reduction – preferably to the level of three per cent of gross domestic product that would one day allow the independent nation to become a full participant in the development of the EU. The Scottish government should continue to restrain its spending and to look for policies that will raise the growth rate of the private sector.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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