Aberdeen top Scots city economy, study finds

Aberdeen has maintained its position as Scotland’s strongest city economy in the first quarter, although the picture north of the Border was varied, according to new data.

The UK Powerhouse study from law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economics and Business Research provides an estimate of growth in gross value added (GVA) and job-creation in 46 UK cities.

The Granite City ranked 16th in terms of economic perform- ance after recording a GVA growth rate of 2 per cent. Glasgow followed closely behind at 1.8 per cent, but Edinburgh’s 1.5 per cent meant the Scottish capital was ranked in the bottom eight.

Glasgow saw its workforce increase by 1.4 per cent across the quarter, while Aberdeen and Edinburgh recorded growth rates of 0.8 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively.

Mark Higgins, partner at Irwin Mitchell’s Glasgow office, said the latest report offers a “fairly mixed outlook in terms of Scotland”.