Wales needs change to stop having the worst economic performance of any UK country

The economic policies of both Welsh and Westminster governments have failed the people of Wales

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today show that Wales continues to have the poorest economic productivity in the UK.

Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Finance Rhun ap Iorwerth AM said that the “unarguable statistics show the economic policies of both Welsh and Westminster Governments have failed the people of Wales.”

In 2017 Wales had the lowest Gross Value Added (GVA) per head in the UK at just £19,899 compared with £25,485 in Scotland and £28,086 in England. The economy of London in 2017 was more than twice as productive as the Welsh economy, with London economic activity bringing in £48,857 per person.

Of the four nations of the UK, Wales also had the lowest economic growth between 2016 and 2017 at 1.4%, while the Scottish, Northern Irish and English economies grew by 1.6%, 1.9% and 2.0% respectively.

Mr ap Iorwerth also highlighted that the current approach to Wales’s exit from the EU risks making things worse.

Plaid Cymru Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Finance Rhun ap Iorwerth AM said:

“These new ONS figures demonstrate once again that the economic policies of both the Welsh and Westminster Governments are failing the people of Wales.

“We know Westminster has never had Wales’s interests at heart, but the Labour Welsh Government lack the ideas and ambition to turn things around.

“And now we are on the brink of a Brexit that is set to make Wales’s economy poorer. That is not my analysis, but the analysis of the Westminster Government committed to carrying this out.

“If we are going to see an improvement in people’s living standards in Wales we need change. That change is embodied in the ideas and policies that Plaid Cymru are putting forward.”