Brexit has caused growth of Scottish economy to half, says Bank of England governor

Mark Carney

Speaking to an event for charities and voluntary groups, including Barnardo’s Scotland, the West of Scotland Regional Equality Council and The Poverty Alliance, Mr Carney said: “Scotland has a diversified economy. It does have in this context good momentum but even the Scottish economy is probably growing at half the rate it was a year, a year and a half ago.

“And I think we know the reason why that is the case.”

Mr Carney’s comments appear to be backed by official data from the Office for National Statistics which shows Scotland’s GDP has grown for eight consecutive quarters running back to the start of 2017, but the pace of growth in the third and fourth quarters of 2018 was markedly slower than that seen in the January to March and April to June measures of last year.

Citing Scotch whisky as an example, Mr Carney went on to warn that certain key parts of the Scottish economy would be hit further in the case of a so-called “hard Brexit” where no trading agreement was secured prior to the UK’s departure from the EU.

In such a scenario, Scotland’s trade would be hit by greater customs checks, regulatory barriers and tariffs.

Mr Carney indicated that Scotland’s manufacturing, financial services and agriculture sectors as well as the “world-leading distillery industry” would all experience an impact if the Brexit imposed on Scotland by voters in the rest of the UK turned out to be imposed without a deal.