Things look certain to remain tough on the economic front – as has been the case throughout the UK for so long now – and this difficult backdrop made strong Scottish gross domestic product figures last week all the more welcome.

The latest data, published by the Scottish Government’s chief economist directorate, may have come as a surprise to many given the generally politically and ideologically fuelled narrative that the economic situation north of the Border is grim. The narrative is, in broad terms, that the Scottish economy is some sort of basket case. This narrative always seems disproportionately noisy in the Scottish political echo chamber.

So what did the latest economic output figures for Scotland show?

Scotland’s GDP grew by 0.7% in real terms quarter-on-quarter between April and June. This was well ahead of growth of 0.4% in the UK as a whole over the same timeframe.

In the three months to June, Scottish services output grew by 0.6% quarter-on-quarter and the production sector expanded by 0.9%. The construction sector north of the Border grew by 0.3%, and agriculture, forestry and fishing output increased by 1.7%.

Business services and finance made the greatest contribution towards Scotland’s quarterly GDP growth in the three months to June, the Scottish Government chief economist directorate noted.

The strength of the second-quarter Scottish GDP figures was definitely eye-catching in these very difficult economic........

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