GDP & The Economy... Confused?

I am no Economics student but I like numbers, can manage numbers and can relate to numbers and what it tells you.

GDP is a subject that always confused me - I had thought it was in tens, hundreds or millions of thousands until I recently looked at the Scottish Governments GDP figures in April 2016. After hearing all the media stories about "not as good as the UK" and the "Oh woe.. Scotland & Scottish Govt stories" I thought I'd look into the detail myself.

BBC News: "Scotland's economy grew by 0.2% in the last quarter of 2015 but trailed the UK's performance as a whole, according to official figures."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-35976869

Press & Journal: "Growth in GDP helps Scotland’s economy avoid recession"

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/pipe/881577/growth-in-gdp-helps-scotlands-economy-avoid-recession/?

The Herald: "Economic growth much weaker in Scotland than in UK as a whole"

http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/14407738.Economic_growth_much_weaker_in_Scotland_than_in_UK_as_a_whole/?

Or even the anti-SNP rhetoric of Douglas Frasers article on BBC (yeah they're trying to create the news rather than report on it): "The taxing question of Scotland's growth"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-35980512

I think you'll agree all talking Scotland down and ensuring that those reading them will think that the Scottish Government is not doing its job properly. The same is heard across BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Scotland News stories, even STV are getting in on the rhetoric. But is that the case?

Luckily the data openly available. It's no secret that you can download this data yourself by visiting http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/PubGDP/GDP2015Q4 and seeing what this is all about.

If you download the "results tables" the first page you see is the Quarterly results and yes the data shows some numbers. Confusing to say the least, but look at it this way. The Scottish Government was formed in 2011 once plans were in place, they decided to set 2012 as a benchmark year. This was then given a score of 100, everything before and after was then benchmarked against this 2012 figure. As an example during the Iraq War in 2003, GDP was at a relative index score of 93 gradually increasing from 1998 & peaking in 2007 at the highest EVER of 102 before being impacted by the financial crisis of 2008 when it dropped.

In the last term of office, the Scottish Government has made significant progress in increasing the GDP of the country, starting with 99.7 and steadily increasing this to 106.3 in 2015. Keep in mind that 106.3 is the highest GDP we have ever achieved as a nation. Pretty impressive that they've managed a 6.3% increase in GDP since 2012 considering all the doom and gloom that the Media prefer to portray & unless another financial crisis is experienced soon (some say it's due), then the momentum is behind the Scottish Government to continue this growth. (Rhetorical question, how the hell could they do this when the oil price is so low? :) ).

The main noticeable changes though are in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing which have dropped significantly since 2006, nearly 22%, this isn't directly "SNPbad" of course. In the UK as a whole, less Agriculture & Fishing are being done as we are pushed into a more reliant state. But keep in mind that during this parliament, Scotland has only reduced Agriculture Forestry & Fishing by 1.123% it looks like there has been a more concerted effort to stave off this execution, some would say that this was a deliberate ploy by the Scottish Government to fight for Scotland's corner, I’ll leave that one with you. (Question - I don't profess to know the answer - What happened between 2004 & 2012 that saw Fishing, Forestry & Agriculture reduce so much in Scotland? If I were the press, I'd be asking this question & is it based on EU, UK or Scottish decisions?)

Anyway, when viewed in a minuscule bubble, like our press & media appear to be doing (& no doubt part time pet food shop owners), how does Scotland's GDP compare? Well, exactly like they say when comparing apples with pears, but just delve into the Macro-vision of the figures and you can see the Scottish Government are doing "no-bad"!

Please share :)

T