Bank advances to Scottish agriculture: 2017 survey results

Results of the survey of bank advances to Scottish agriculture, together with other relevant data regarding loans to agriculture.

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1. Main findings

Total outstanding bank loans to agriculture were £2.32 billion, up from £2.20 billion last year.

£2.32 billion

Change since last year

£113m 5%

Real terms [1] change since last year

£71m 3%

Long term trend in outstanding bank debt 1
1980-2017

Long term trend in outstanding bank debt(1) 1980-2017

Liabilities by type 2017

Liabilities by type 2017

What does “in real terms” mean?

It shows, for previous years, the value of the debt expressed in today’s prices. This is because, for example, a loan of £10,000 in 1990 could have paid for something that nowadays would need a loan of £20,000, so we say the 1990 loan was worth £20,000 in today’s prices.

To do this we simply multiply our data on previous years’ debts by the amount prices have gone up since then. In our example prices have doubled, so we multiply the 1990 debt by two to see what it would be worth in today’s prices. For these multipliers we use the GDP deflator, from the Office for National Statistics ( ONS) [2] .

Contact

Email: Neil White, agric.stats@gov.scot

Phone: 0300 244 4000 – Central Enquiry Unit

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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