Scotland’s onshore GDP contracted by 0.3% in February 2024, according to statistics announced by the Chief Statistician. This follows unrevised growth of 0.6% in January 2024.

In the three months to February, GDP is estimated to have grown by 0.4% compared to the previous three-month period.

This indicates an increase in growth relative to the contraction of 0.5% (revised from -0.6%) in 2023 quarter 4 (October to December).

Output in the services sector, which accounts for around three-quarters of the economy, contracted by 0.7% in February.

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Output in the production sector is estimated to have grown by 2.0% in February. The largest contribution to overall GDP came from growth in the output of manufacturing.

The industries which made the biggest contributions to overall GDP growth in February were manufacturing, and retail, wholesale and motor trades, which between them contributed 0.4 percentage points to overall growth.

The positive contributions were offset by falling output in the professional, scientific and technical services, information and communications, and health and social work industries.

In 2023, Scotland’s GDP grew by 0.1% compared to 2022, revised down from 0.2% in the first quarterly estimate of GDP.

Further analysis on the Business Insights and Conditions Survey suggested the conflict in the Middle East also impacted industries.

One in 10 businesses in the wholesale, retail, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and human health and social work sectors were affected by global supply disruption.