Scottish budget deficit falls to 8.3% of GDP in 2016-17

Edinburgh: Scottish public spending data for the year to the end of March showed on Wednesday that its budget deficit is still more than triple the size of that for the United Kingdom as whole, potentially hampering the Scottish independence cause. Scotland’s heavily oil-dependent economy is still struggling to cope with an oil sector downturn following a peak in prices in 2014, tax cuts for the sector and lower production, as well as a longer legacy of high government spending. Scotland’s budget deficit, including notional North Sea oil revenues, was 8.3 per cent of GDP in the 2016/17 tax year, down from 9.3 per cent in 2015/16, the Scottish government said. Excluding oil, the deficit would be 9.0 per cent.