{"id":213765,"date":"2025-06-25T18:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T18:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/213765\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T18:02:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T18:02:15","slug":"kate-forbes-calls-for-action-on-brexit-as-scottish-economy-shrinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/213765\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate Forbes calls for action on Brexit as Scottish economy shrinks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article-first-paragraph\">\n      DEPUTY First Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/topics\/kate-forbes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kate Forbes<\/a> has highlighted \u201cdifficult global trading conditions\u201d as new figures showed Scotland\u2019s economy shrank for the second consecutive month.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/topics\/scottish-government\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scottish Government<\/a> statistics revealed GDP was down by 0.2% in April, with this coming after a fall of 0.4% in March.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      It had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/25197255.kate-forbes-urges-westminster-action-scotlands-economy-shrinks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">previously been reported that GDP was down by 0.2% for that month<\/a>, but the latest figures showed the fall was larger than initially estimated.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      However in the first three months of this year, the economy grew by 0.4%, the data showed.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      Forbes said: \u201cAfter a positive start to the year when we saw Scotland\u2019s GDP grow 0.4% in the first quarter, these figures show that \u2013 like the rest of the UK \u2013 we have been impacted by ongoing challenges, including more difficult global trading conditions.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      <strong>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/25266954.first-minister-issues-apology-scotlands-gypsy-traveller-community\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">First Minister issues apology to Scotland\u2019s Gypsy Traveller community<\/a><\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      She stressed the Scottish Government was \u201ctaking steps to transform Scotland\u2019s economy by pursuing new investment, building export potential and supporting innovation\u201d.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      But the Deputy First Minister added: \u201cWe need decisive action from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/topics\/uk-government\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UK Government<\/a> to counter the damaging economic impacts of Brexit and tackle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/topics\/business\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">business<\/a> uncertainty \u2013 including reversing its decision to increase employers\u2019 national insurance contributions.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      However, LibDem economy spokesman Jamie Greene questioned whether the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/25059069.news-interviews-updates-snp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SNP<\/a> government could be able to build a \u201csolid economic foundation\u201d.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      He said: \u201cThere is obviously a lot of turmoil going on in the world right now but that is why building a solid economic foundation is so important.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      \u201cScotland needs an economy that is robust, resilient and growing. But after years of SNP mismanagement it is clear the nationalists will never be able to deliver that.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n      \u201cPut simply: they will never care as much about the Scottish economy and the public services it supports as they do about their real goal, which is driving a wedge between Scotland and the rest of the UK.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEPUTY First Minister Kate Forbes has highlighted \u201cdifficult global trading conditions\u201d as new figures showed Scotland\u2019s economy shrank&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-213765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114745320564214765","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}