Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrive at the University of Edinburgh before signing the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 7, 2018. Jane Barlow/Pool via Re
GLASGOW, Scotland: Scotland's large budget deficit shrank in the last financial year to its lowest since 2012 but remained far larger in percentage terms than that of the United Kingdom as a whole, Scottish government data showed on Wednesday.
The health of Scotland's economy, as Britain prepares to leave the European Union in March 2019, is a key issue affecting Scottish voters' appetite for independence. Opinion polls put support for independence at about 45 percent.
Wednesday's data showed that Scotland's net fiscal deficit shrank to 13.4 billion pounds ($17.1 billion) in the 2017/18 tax year from 14.5 billion pounds the year before, helped by stronger North Sea oil and gas revenues.
As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), the deficit fell to 7.9 percent from 8.9 percent - the lowest since 2011/12 but far higher than in the United Kingdom as a whole, where public sector net borrowing was 1.9 percent of GDP in 2017/18.
Per capita public spending in Scotland was 1,576 pounds more than the British average, suppported by taxes from other parts of the United Kingdom.
Scotland's pro-independence First Minister Nicola Sturgeon defends higher Scottish public spending and blames deficit-reduction policies imposed by British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives for rising income gaps across the U.K..
Sturgeon described Brexit on Wednesday as a "real and present danger" for Scotland and Britain's economy.
In a 2016 referendum Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU, while England - by far the most populous of the home nations - and Wales voted to leave. In 2014 Scottish voters rejected independence from the rest of Britain by 55 percent to 45 percent.
Sturgeon said she was not opposed to the United Kingdom holding a second vote on EU membership - a cause championed by an increasing number of people opposed to Brexit. Prime Minister May has ruled out a second vote on EU membership and says it is "not the time" for a fresh Scottish independence vote.
($1 = 0.7841 pounds) (Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary, writing by David Milliken; editing by Sarah Young and Gareth Jones)
