This represents the loss of around £2300 per annum for each person north of the Border by the year 2030 – the equivalent of a 8.5 per cent drop in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
A no-deal Brexit would mean the UK would have to rely on World Trade Organization (WTO) rules to do business with the EU, meaning tariffs of up to 40 per cent would be imposed on goods moving each way.
Read Business for Scotland’s response to the analysis
2017 was a record-breaking year for Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports, with almost 23 million passengers travelling through the doors.
More than 13 million passengers used Edinburgh Airport in 2017 while more than 9.9 million passengers used Glasgow Airport, making it the busiest ever year for both Scottish airports.
A total of 13,432,485 people passed through Edinburgh airport in 2017, an additional one million passengers when compared to 2016, with international passengers driving growth – up almost 14 per-cent as 32 of the 34 new routes launched at the airport in 2017 were to international destinations.
In December more than 618,100 people travelled through the Glasgow Airport terminal, however, adverse weather conditions resulted in a marginal -1.5% decrease on passenger numbers on the same period in 2016.
International traffic was up by 2.3% due to strong demand for winter sun destinations but the poor weather conditions in December also led to a -5.2% reduction on domestic traffic.
A LEADING distiller is concerned over new customs arrangements after Brexit, which could see Scotch whisky being stockpiled at Borders across the European Union.
His concern stems from the introduction by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) of a new system for collecting duties and taxes for goods entering and leaving the UK, which is due to come in before the official Brexit date of March 29, 2019.
Martin Leonard, managing director of Airdrie-based Inver House Distillers, fears the new system will be ill-equipped to deal with the huge increase in workload the UK’s exit from the EU is expected to bring. This is because the CDS system was designed on the basis the UK would remain part of the EU, which changed following the Brexit vote of June 2016.
The new Customs Declaration System (CDS) will replace the existing CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight) regime, and is due to come into effect next January.
Mr Leonard said: “It’s critical that [CDS] has the capacity to deal with the increased level of exports, because it would have been designed on the basis of the UK being part of the EU. It is now going to deal with five times the number of transactions it did previously.”
Perth Racecourse contributes £11.8m annually to the Scottish economy, with £9.9m of that impacting locally, and provides the equivalent of 130 full-time jobs.
More than 80% of the £11.8m total revenues generated the previous year remained in the local economy, underlining Perth’s position as a significant visitor attraction and contributor to the region.
The report found that Perth makes a £3.4m contribution to government revenues (taxes and NI) with more than half of those collected in Scotland and directly assigned to Scottish Government or the local authority.
SMEs in Scotland are expecting a good year in 2018, despite the latest SME Growth Tracker showing that confidence in business conditions in the region is among the worst in the UK.
The SME Growth Tracker has unsurprisingly predicted that SMEs expect that 2018 will be a challenging year. However, it seems businesses still have high hopes for jobs creation and growth of revenue and profits.
Across Scotland, the SME Growth Tracker, a report by Capital Economics assessesing confidence, growth prospects and views on the broader UK economy from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) found:
- SMEs expect revenue growth over the coming year of 1.2 per cent. Over the previous year, revenue rose, on average, by 0.9 per cent.
- SMEs are expecting business conditions for their company to get worse over the next 12 months, with a score of -13. Only Wales (-15) had a worse rating.
- Scottish SMEs aren’t confident about the UK economy, expecting it to deteriorate over the coming year, with a score of -35 – the lowest score in the UK.
- SMEs across Scotland expect to increase headcount by 0.4 per cent in the next 12 months, after they increased jobs by 0.7 per cent during the previous year.