The gulf between the projected economic performance of Glasgow and Edinburgh on the one hand - and rural and island areas of Scotland and Aberdeen and its environs on the other - is striking.

The predictions for Scotland’s two largest cities, and projections of declines in working-age population in rural and island areas and some other places, are contained in the latest forecasts for the nation from the highly regarded EY ITEM Club think-tank published last Tuesday.

There was little in the way of surprises in the overall forecasts for Scotland.

The Scottish economy is forecast to grow by 0.7% this year, with this projection reduced from 0.9% a quarter ago and the think-tank noting this mirrors the UK trend. The UK is now predicted by the EY ITEM Club to expand by 0.9% in 2024.

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These forecasts are unremarkable. The UK as a whole has been struggling and fell into recession at the end of last year, a situation Scotland thankfully managed to avoid.

The UK is projected to grow in coming years at rates far adrift of those it enjoyed in the years preceding the global financial crisis, which got under way in earnest in autumn 2008. And the scenario facing Scotland is unsurprisingly much the same.

The EY ITEM Club forecasts annual average growth in Scotland of 1.1% between 2025 and 2029.

Hearteningly for Glasgow and Edinburgh, the think-tank’s respective........

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