The Scottish economy grew for the fourth successive quarter from January through March, Scottish Government statistics have shown.
The three-month period saw the gross domestic product grow by 0.4%. Compared with the same quarter in 2012, the Scottish economy grew by 1%, while the UK economy increased by 0.3%.
Scottish Enterprise Minister Fergus Ewing said: “Scotland’s economy continues to grow faster than the UK, with a strong performance across the business services and finance sector.
“We can build on these figures but we cannot allow Westminster’s continued pursuit of austerity over economic recovery to derail the positive developments we are seeing in Scotland.”
UK Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore said: “Scotland is benefiting from the security, scale and influence provided by the UK, pooling resources from a UK-wide tax base, unrestricted access to a single domestic market from which we do two- thirds of our trade with the same regulation in Wick as in Weymouth.”
Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said: “This is welcome, but the low increases show that growth remains weak and the rise in unemployment to 7.1% in the same time period shows that the picture is not one of universal confidence.”