Scottish exports in sharp decline - HMRC

About an eighth of goods manufactured in Scotland are sold abroad.

The machinery and transport, which accounts for a third of Scottish goods exports, was down by 5 per cent, or £319m at £5.8bn.

That fall compares unfavourably with the performance of the sector throughout the UK which remained steady, coming in at just below £108bn.

UK exports of manufactured goods were down by 6 per cent on 2014, to less than £26.9bn, reflecting a worldwide slowdown in trade, and the problems exporters faced from the strength of sterling.

Scottish manufactured goods also saw a decline for the sector’s big-hitting whisky exports, which saw a continued slide of 4.4 per cent in exports, to just under £4.5bn.

While exports fell, imports north of the border rose, according to the HMRC’s latest “regional” trade figures.

The machinery and transport category of imports, which grew to account for half of all goods imported from overseas to Scotland, grew by £886m, or 16 per cent during last year.

Total exports of goods from Scotland fell by 11 per cent last year, while the UK as a whole saw a fall in the overseas sale of goods of 2.7 per cent.

Exports of goods from Scotland to the European Union were down 20 per cent in only one year - by 17 per cent to Germany and by 23 per cent to the Netherlands.

The USA remained the biggest single export market, with a one-seventh share, but the total value was down 3.5 per cent.