EY created a degree of suspense when it published strong 2024 financial services foreign direct investment figures for Scotland on June 9 and said it would reveal the nation’s overall FDI performance, across sectors, a week or so later.

Would Scotland have continued to prosper on the key inward investment front last year? And how would it have fared relative to the rest of the UK?

Those questions were answered early last week with publication of EY’s overall 2024 FDI figures for Scotland.

And, for those who like to see Scotland performing well in what are undoubtedly tough economic times in the UK and indeed internationally, these numbers were worth the wait.

The figures published on June 9 had shown Scotland was second only to London as a destination for financial services FDI in the UK last year, achieving a decade-high for the number of projects won.

Scotland attracted 11 financial services FDI projects in 2024, up from nine in the previous year, the EY figures showed. And this advance was achieved in spite of a sharp fall in overall financial services FDI into the UK last year by project numbers.

The overall FDI figures for Scotland, when they landed last week, showed the nation increased its share of inward investment projects in the UK again last year.

EY Scotland managing partner Ally Scott got straight to the point.

He declared: “Put simply, Scotland continues to punch above its weight with inward investment.”

Scotland in 2024........

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