The doomsayers on Scotland may have got a big surprise last week, writes Business Editor Ian McConnell.

Given the doomsaying that seems to be an inevitable feature of too many discussions about how Scotland is doing, there was probably a big surprise for some last week.

This surprise came in the form of something at odds with what at times seems like a relentlessly downbeat narrative on Scotland, often emanating from the more ideologically inclined.

Figures published by the Scottish Government last Wednesday showed the economy north of the Border outperformed that in the UK as a whole last year.

Over 2025, Scotland’s gross domestic product rose by 1.4%. UK GDP increased by 1.3% last year, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics in February.

The Scottish Government data showed a 0.1% quarter-on-quarter rise in GDP north of the Border in the final three months of last year.

And the Scottish economy grew in every quarter last year, a fact highlighted by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes.

It is obviously important to realise that 1.4% growth, while a very good outturn given the difficult UK economic backdrop, is far from spectacular. And of course the margin of Scotland’s outperformance of the UK as a whole is fine.

That said, Scotland growing faster than the UK last year is thankfully entirely at odds with that downbeat narrative you hear so often north of the Border, usually from people who it seems would never let the hard numbers get in the way of their politically........

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