No Recession in Scotland

No Recession in Scotland

There is no recession in Scotland as sales on Scotland’s high streets saw a surprising boost in January as Scotland ignored worries over the credit crunch.  

The 8.1 per cent rise, the highest since last Easter came in the face of higher mortgage payments, hikes in electricity and gas bills and a fast cooling property market north of the border.  The figures are good news for the Scottish economy where experts had been predicting a downturn in consumer confidence.

The Scottish Retail Consortium have said that a lot of the increase was driven by deep price cutting by stores during their clearance sales.  There is still evidence that Scotland’s household budgets were being squeezed.

Our view

In Scotland, the economy lags behind England by around 6 months.  In short, for some time periods, when England is in recession, Scotland is not and when Scotland moves in to a slow down, England may just be starting to turn the corner.

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