Performance of the Scottish Economy

That the Parliament notes with great concern the latest government figures on economic growth showing Scotland has entered official recession for the first time in twenty years; recognises that this recession is the latest symptom of economic under-performance in Scotland over a protracted period and that Scotland has the potential to perform much better than it has; resolves that the performance of the Scottish economy should be of prime importance to the agenda of the Executive, the Parliament and all concerned with the well-being of the people of Scotland and the sustainable financing of public service investments, and therefore calls upon the Scottish Executive to set an ambitious target for improving Scotland’s trend rate of growth and contribute to a mature, serious and open-minded debate about the best policy measures to achieve that target, keeping an open mind about both the limits of existing powers and the potential competitive benefits of properly focussed policies with the full powers of independence.