The Royal Bank of Scotland Growth Tracker – a seasonally adjusted index that measures the month-on-
month change in the combined output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors –rose from 46.9 in
December to 49.6 in January, offering some signs of optimism for Scotland’s business sector in 2025. The
softer contraction in private sector output was driven by a renewed uplift in services activity but partly offset a
further decline in manufacturing production.
Scottish firms continued to shed jobs at the start of 2025, after December data signalled a drop in employment
for the first time in almost two years. Services joined manufacturing in registering lower staffing.
Scottish private sector companies once again reported a decrease in new work intakes in January, with
companies signalling lower client demand relating this to greater uncertainty about domestic economic
conditions. The upcoming NI rise was also stated to have led customers to clamp down on spending.
Overall input prices rose at their sharpest pace since August 2023, with both services and manufacturing
recording a steeper rate of inflation than in December.
month change in the combined output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors –rose from 46.9 in
December to 49.6 in January, offering some signs of optimism for Scotland’s business sector in 2025. The
softer contraction in private sector output was driven by a renewed uplift in services activity but partly offset a
further decline in manufacturing production.
Scottish firms continued to shed jobs at the start of 2025, after December data signalled a drop in employment
for the first time in almost two years. Services joined manufacturing in registering lower staffing.
Scottish private sector companies once again reported a decrease in new work intakes in January, with
companies signalling lower client demand relating this to greater uncertainty about domestic economic
conditions. The upcoming NI rise was also stated to have led customers to clamp down on spending.
Overall input prices rose at their sharpest pace since August 2023, with both services and manufacturing
recording a steeper rate of inflation than in December.
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to my summary of the Royal Bank of Scotland's growth tracker for the Scotsman.
00:08In January, Scotland's firms told us that they saw a big jump in costs and pricing pressures,
00:15and that was confirmed by the Bank of England's own forecast for inflation to reach 3.7% later
00:22in the year.
00:24The good news is that that pricing pressure hasn't prevented firms from turning around
00:32the momentum on output and reporting a much healthier score for the first month of 2025.
00:40And whilst there's clearly a lot of uncertainty in the outlook, Scotland continues to benefit
00:46from one of the stronger scores for labour market and future employment, setting us up
00:53well for the rest of the year.