Economy of Scotland
The headquarters of the Bank of Scotland,
located on the Mound in Edinburgh.
The economy of Scotland is closely linked
with the rest of the United Kingdom and the
wider European Economic Area. It is essen-
tially a mixed economy. Scotland has the
third largest GDP per capita of any region in
the United Kingdom after the South East of
England and Greater London, though it is
still lower than the average of the United
Kingdom as a whole.
Scotland was one of the industrial power-
houses of Europe from the time of the Indus-
trial Revolution onwards, being a world lead-
er in manufacturing and shipbuilding related
industries, at the time, which today has left a
legacy in the diversity of goods and services
which the Scottish economy produces from
textiles, whisky and shortbread to aeroen-
gines, buses,
computer software,
ships,
avionics and microprocessors to banking, in-
surance, fund management and other related
financial services.
In common with most other advanced in-
dustrialised economies, Scotland has seen a
decline in the importance of the manufactur-
ing industries and primary-based extractive
industries. This has, however, been combined
with a rise in the service sector of the eco-
nomy which is now the largest sector in Scot-
land, with significant rates of growth over the
last decade.
The British Pound Sterling is the official
currency of Scotland, and the central bank of
the UK is the Bank of England which retains
responsibility for the monetary policy of the
whole of the United Kingdom.
Overview
After the Industrial Revolution, the Scottish
economy concentrated on heavy industry,
dominated by the shipbuilding, coal mining
and steel industries. Scottish participation in
the British Empire also allowed the Scottish
economy to export its output throughout the
world. However heavy industry declined in
the latter part of the 20th century leading to
a remarkable shift in the economy of Scot-
land towards a technology and service sector
based economy. The 1980s saw an economic
boom in the S