smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

The decline in Scottish manufactured exports has started to ease, new figures show.

Finance secretary John Swinney reveals that the first quarter of 2009 saw a 3.4 per cent decrease in the level of Scottish export sales when compared to the year before, following a 9.6 per cent fall in the last quarter of 2008.

However, he points out that Scotland's performance compares well with other countries', as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reported export levels declined by 11.6 per cent in the US and 31.5 per cent in Japan over the same period.

Swinney adds that the new figures show the importance of recent Scottish government initiatives to support economic recovery and highlights the extra £3 million which was invested in the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service to double the number of firms it can support.

'Through our comprehensive economic recovery programme we have accelerated capital spending to support up to 15,000 jobs and provide a direct and timely stimulus to our manufacturing and construction sectors,' he explains.

The recent Purchasing Managers' Index from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply showed that manufacturing production in the UK rose in June for the first time since March last year, but a lack of new orders means that the industry is still in contraction.

There are currently no comments on this article