An update from the Scottish Fiscal Commission has revealed that the Scottish Government will receive a minimum of £6.5 billion of additional funding as part of the UK to respond to the coronavirus crisis.
The report states: “This guaranteed level of funding provides the Scottish Government with a degree of certainty as it manages its response to COVID-19 for the remainder of this financial year.”
The UK Government has borrowed for the UK as a whole, with historically low rates available for the UK.
But Scotland’s leading macroeconomist Professor Ronald MacDonald of Glasgow University has said a ‘newly minted independent Scotland without the long history of credibility that the Bank of England and Treasury have would have to pay a premium on its borrowing over UK rates’.
Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, said:
“As part of the UK, the Scottish Government has received a multi-billion pound boost to help tackle the coronavirus crisis.
“This pooling and sharing of resources is only possible as part of the UK.
“If Scotland was a separate state it would not be able to borrow at the UK’s low rates, which would in turn require deep public spending cuts and tax rises in the longer-term.
“Scotland is stronger as part of the UK, and it’s time for Nicola Sturgeon to drop her obsession with another divisive independence referendum and focus on improving public services.”
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