The Scottish Government was a “breath-taking” £80 billion away from achieving its top five economic targets, the Tories have claimed.
Research compiled by the opposition party was used to show that the SNP Government had missed all five targets since taking power in 2007.
It included the aim of matching UK GDP, which the Scottish Conservatives said had been £1.5 billion short, while a plan to mirror the GDP of small European countries was said to be £4 billion off target.
Over the last decade, the analysis suggested the Holyrood government would have been £47 billion better off if it had achieved the goal of ranking among the top nations for productivity.
The SNP administration also missed its target of increasing exports by £27.8 billion and failed to increase R&D by £600 million in the period, the Scottish Conservatives added.
Tory shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said: “The scale of these missed targets is breath-taking.
“It is bad enough that the SNP has missed their own targets, but to have missed them by so much is truly desperate.”
A spokesman for Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: “The Tories have a cheek accusing anyone else of damaging Scotland’s economy – by far the biggest threat to Scotland’s future prosperity is the Tory hard Brexit which they are forcing on Scotland against its will.”
The spokesman added: “The fact is, since the financial crisis and recession, Scotland’s productivity has outperformed all other parts of the UK outside London and South-east England and it is encouraging to see that GDP grew across 2017 – ending the year over 1% higher than the previous year.”
