Scottish gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.4% in the second quarter of 2016 — compared to 0.7% for the UK — according to statistics from Scotland’s Chief Statistician.

Compared to the second quarter of 2015, Scottish GDP grew by 0.7% — while the UK’s GDP grew 2.1% over the same period.

Scotland’s GDP per person grew 0.3% in the second quarter compared to 0.4% for the UK.

The statistics cover Scotland’s onshore economy — and do not include oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

The services sector, which makes up three quarters of the Scottish economy, grew 0.5% during the latest period, the production sector grew 0.3%, and construction output contracted 1.9%.

The industry which made the greatest contribution to Scotland’s growth was business services & finance, which accounted for 0.4 percentage points of growth in the Scottish economy in the second quarter.

Cabinet Secretary for the Economy Keith Brown said: “It is encouraging to see modest growth since the start of the year, which is the highest rate of quarterly growth since the start of 2015 …

“The Bank of Scotland’s latest PMI showed Scotland’s private sector output expanding in September and our labour market now showed record quarterly growth employment over May-July 2016, and the unemployment rate is now below that of the UK.”