The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Business reliefs on election agenda
Business leaders have reiterated calls for targeted tax cuts after new data shows that the Scottish economy remains subdued.
Scottish Chambers of Commerce’s (SCOC) quarterly economic indicator found a mixed picture in the first three months of the year.
Levels of optimism in tourism, retail and wholesale were negative but finance and business services had their most positive outlook since the end of 2014.
Confidence in construction remained in positive territory but was 18 percentage points lower than a year ago.
In contrast, manufacturing optimism rose nine percentage points in the same period with “strong” export sales.
The SCOC survey was carried out in conjunction with the Fraser of Allander Institute, with a total of 470 firms responding.
“In January, our survey warned that Scotland’s economy stood on a knifeedge and these latest figures point to continued subdued performance in the early part of this year,” SCOC economic advisory group chairman Neil Amner said.
“However, the picture across the various sectors is less even than it was at the end of 2016, with the manufacturing sector recording very encouraging results, again driven by exports.
“The financial and business-services sector has also rebounded significantly from its position at the beginning of 2016, though this is at least in part as a result of a significant improvement in the prospects of oil and gas service sector businesses from a low base.
“The outlook for construction is again fairly flat and performance in both retail and wholesale, and in tourism, looks to be negative in comparison to the same period last year, though the first quarter has in the past proved to be a difficult period seasonally for both sectors.”
Mr Amner said the political situation with Brexit, a newly announced General Election and moves for a second Scottish independence referendum was creating “uncertainty”, and called for the Scottish and UK governments to prioritise business to enable job creation and investment.
He said: “As we approach a general election, we expect the political parties to pledge targeted tax cuts, potentially including a temporary cut in VAT, in order to bolster consumer demand.”