Economic recovery goes hand in hand with managing health implications of Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says
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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says there is no "trade-off" between saving lives and Scotland's economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
She was speaking at this afternoon's Scottish Government briefing, following the publication of the latest State of the Economy report, which estimated Scotland's economic output could fall by as much as a third during the coronavirus lockdown.
"This report confirms that dealing with this public health emergency has, in itself, created an economic emergency," she said.
In addition to the predicted fall of around a third in gross domestic product (GDP) she said figures also showed that, since March 15, there have been 130,000 new claimants for universal credit in Scotland.
That compared to 15,500 claims for the same period last year.
She said the health of the economy was "of course" one of the things that had to be taken into consideration when looking at how Scotland could emerge from the current lockdown.
However she added: "Economic harm is not in itself a reason to come out of lockdown early.
"If we were to move out too early that would cause further and possibly much longer lasting economic damage."
In response to a question about whether any amount of economic damage was worth paying in an effort to save lives she expanded on that point.
"I think it is wrong and potentially quite dangerous to see this as a trade-off in saving lives and economic revovery," she said.
"The only basis for a lasting economic recovery is a population that is not facing the damage of a rampaging virus.
"If we come out of lockdwn early and the result is a resurgence of the virus which leads to having to go back into lockdown, or a possibly even more stringent version of lockdown, then the damage to the economy is potentially even greater and longer lasting. These things are part of the same challenge."
Chief economist Gary Gillespie said that the global economy was predicted to contract for the first time since the 2009 crash, but it was important to understand that the current crisis was of a different kind, as was the response to it.
"The speed and the scale of the impact is significant, but it is important to recognise this as different from a normal economic downturn," he said.
"The policy response is about protecting capacity in the economy and the scale of the business support being implemented reflects that."
On other matters the First Minister announced that a new mental health campaign is being launched today.
The Clear Your Head campaign will offer information and advice on ways of caring for mental health as well as signposting people to support.
Ms Sturgeon also insisted the Scottish Government would not take an ideological approach to deciding if or when to ease lockdown measures.
This was in response to a question about sending mixed messages if Scotland decided to take a different approach to easing or ending the lockdown from the rest of the UK.
What drives her, she said was "what is the best approach to protect Scotland's population and Scotland's economy" but added: "I will not stick with one over all (UK-wide) approach if the evidence and my judgment tells me something different will work for Scotland, but neither do I come at it from an approach to do something different for Scotland for the sake of it."
