Scotland’s oil and gas and tourism businesses can help lead the UK’s economic recovery, according to a senior director of the Bank of England.
Paul Fisher, the central bank’s executive director of markets and a member of its monetary policy committee, said both industries had held up well despite the challenging conditions facing the private sector.
He was in Aberdeen yesterday as part of a two-day visit to Scotland where he planned to meet around 150 people from the business community.
Mr Fisher said he was confident the economy would pick up, but warned there were still concerns below the surface.
He added: “The biggest issue in the economy as a whole is confidence, but it’s different in different sectors. In the oil sector, there is a lot more confidence because of high energy prices, but because of that same reason manufacturers are a bit less confident.
“You expect Aberdeen to be more buoyant with the various energy-related industries up here.
“Tourism is also doing rather well, possibly because of ‘staycations’.
“It is also a huge export industry for the UK. We traditionally think of exports as being things we send abroad, but actually tourism is one of our main exports. The depreciation in the exchange rate has made it cheaper to come here, so that industry is going to benefit.”
Mr Fisher said the central bank wanted to instil a sense of confidence in the UK’s private sector again, and said schemes like the £80billion funding for lending initiative, which encourages banks to loan to firms, would support the economic recovery.
He added: “We are expecting the economy to pick up eventually. There has been a squeeze on real incomes, partly through taxes and partly through costs rising.
“Those factors are all largely now behind us, so as the squeeze on real incomes comes to an end we should see people buying and we should see companies starting to supply into that demand.”
Mr Fisher also paid tribute to Scotland’s “spirit of private enterprise”.
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