Scotland’s economy grew 1% in the first quarter of 2022, despite public health restrictions in place to tackle the Omicron variant.
GDP growth stood at 1.3% during the final three months of 2021.
Early estimates for January to March show economic growth has been driven by increased outputs in the construction (2.5%) and services (1%) sectors.
Separate monthly GDP statistics show 0.3% economic growth in March.
The statistics follow the publication of the EY Attractiveness Survey, finding that Scotland outperformed the UK as whole when it came to attracting foreign direct investment projects.
Earlier this week, the Scottish Government published its Resource Spending Review, committing to invest almost £880m to support the economy, in addition to plans for continuing the Inward Investment Plan to attract more investment and increase export growth.
Economy Secretary Kate Forbes said: “It’s been an unprecedented time for Scotland’s economy – from managing the many impacts of the pandemic, mitigating the ongoing effects of Brexit, the cost of living crisis and inflation at a record 40 year high.
“These statistics show, that despite these vast and complex challenges, the public, private and third sectors that make up Scotland’s economy are resilient and have continued to grow by 1% in the first quarter of 2022.
“We have provided more than £4.7bn in business support since the beginning of the pandemic, including around £1.6bn in rates relief which includes a continuation of 50% retail, hospitality, and leisure rates relief for the first three months of 2022-23, capped at £27,500 per ratepayer.”
Kevin Brown, communications manager at Scottish Friendly, commented: “The Scottish economy is showing signs of slowing down as the threat of another recession looms.
“The likelihood that Scotland will be able to maintain this low-level of growth in the coming months seems increasingly unlikely - living costs are spiralling and inflation is likely to reach double digits when October’s energy price cap comes into effect.
“Wages are going up but not by enough and household incomes are being squeezed more tightly than they have done in decades,” he continued. “Families on higher incomes and with considerable savings to fall back on may be able to swallow sharp price rises, but many individuals may be forced into reducing how much they spend.
“A sharp decline in consumer spending power is bad news for the economy and could mean we see negative growth as early as the second quarter this year.”
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