INDEPENDENCE 'COULD FUEL RECORD GROWTH'

INDEPENDENCE could lead to record economic growth and leave the average Scottish family thousands of pounds better off, a free market economic think-tank claimed today. A research paper published by the Adam Smith Institute, said that Scotland could emulate Ireland's recent economic success if the same policies are followed.

Instead of current growth rates that trail the rest of the country, Scotland ten years into independence could out-perform the UK, the report claimed. The paper, Independent Scotland: The Road to Riches by international economist Gabriel Stein of Lombard Street Research, found that from 1992 to 2004, Scotland's gross value added growth was only 87 per cent of that of the UK.

If an independent Scotland reduced taxes, cut spending and created a business-friendly environment, the country's growth rate over a five-year period could move from 4.7 per cent to Ireland's 7 per cent, he said.

The paper claimed that a further five years of Scottish growth at that level, and before diminishing returns set in, would lead to a more than two-thirds increase in GDP. Mr Stein said that by contrast the rest of the UK would grow by just over one-quarter.