Economy of Scotland

Scotland has an economy which is an open mixed economy, mainly services based, which had an estimated nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of £223.4 billion in 2024, including oil and gas extraction in the country's continental shelf region. The country's primary industries are agriculture, forestry, fishery, manufacturing, oil and gas extraction, science, technology and energy, food and drink and tourism. Major developing industries in Scotland include the space industry, renewable energy and the financial technologies sectors. The country is one of Europe's leading financial centres, and is the largest financial hub in the United Kingdom outside of London. Scotland's largest non-UK export market is the European Union (EU), followed by the United States.

Scotland was one of the industrial powerhouses of Europe from the time of the Industrial Revolution onwards, being a world leader in manufacturing. The country had one of the largest and most successful shipbuilding industries in the world, and although significantly reduced in size, shipbuilding remains a significant sector of the economy, generating £403 million in GVA towards Scotland's economy in 2022. Scotland's economy has been closely aligned with the economy of the rest of the United Kingdom since the Acts of Union 1707 which united the Kingdom of Scotland with the Kingdom of England to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. Since 1979, management of the economy has followed a broadly laissez-faire approach.

There are three Scottish commercial banks – the Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank, and although the Bank of England is Scotland's central bank and its Monetary Policy Committee is responsible for setting interest rates, the three banks of Scotland have retained the rights to print their own banknotes. The Bank of Scotland was the first bank in Europe to successfully print its own banknotes in 1696. The currency of Scotland, as part of the United Kingdom, is the Pound sterling, which is also the world's fourth-largest reserve currency after the US dollar, the euro and Japanese yen.

The economy of Scotland is the second largest economy amongst the countries of the United Kingdom. As one of the countries of the United Kingdom, Scotland is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the G7, the G20, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the United Nations.