Big Economy Briefing - Part 2: Understanding Scotland's Economy

Name: Big Economy Briefing - Part 2: Understanding Scotland's Economy
Start: 2026-03-04T08:15:00+00:00
End: 2026-03-04T10:15:00+00:00
Location: Royal Bank of Scotland, Carnegie Room, 6th Floor, 6-8 George Street, Edinburgh

Schedule

Wed Mar 04 2026 at 08:15 am to 10:15 am

UTC+00:00

Location

Royal Bank of Scotland, Carnegie Room, 6th Floor, 6-8 George Street, Edinburgh | Edinburgh, SC

Part 2 of our big economy breakfast briefing brings together even more data to build on part 1 and asks what does it all mean for Scotland?
About this Event

Join us for this breakfast briefing, the day after the Chancellor's Spring Statement. You'll hear even more economic data and have a chance to think about the months and years ahead. The event is kindly hosted by The Royal Bank of Scotland.

Speakers will include, Dougie Robb from Smart Data Foundry, who will present the latest analysis from their Nowcast analysis of bank accounts. How does this correlate with what people are telling us in the Understanding Scotland Economy Tracker? Are people's actions the same as their words?

Dougie will be followed by Gary Gillespie, Chief Economic Advisor at the Scottish Government.

About the speakers:

Dougie Robb, CEO, (SDF)
Smrt Data Foundry is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh which brings together financial services organisations, regulators, fintechs, researchers and government with a common goal – to use data in a safe way people can trust to inspire new innovation and deliver economic, social and environmental benefits for everyone.

SDF provide unprecedented insights into the UK’s economic health through secure access to de-identified banking and finance data from millions of customers.

By partnering with financial institutions, such as NatWest Group and Virgin Money, they provide detailed evidence about financial behaviours, economic resilience, and regional economic activity.

Sebastian Burnside, Chief Economist, Natwest Group

Sebastian joined the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2009 and has been Chief Economist for NatWest Group since 2018. His areas of interest include how society adapts to an ageing population; the economics of the climate transition; impact of technology and AI on jobs; the shift to defined contribution pension schemes and the microanalysis of customer transaction data.
Before joining RBS, Sebastian worked as an Economist for Ofcom and PwC. Sebastian holds degrees in Economics from a BSc in Economics from London School of Economics, and an MSc in Economics from The University of Edinburgh. Sebastian is Trustee Director of NatWest Group Retirement Savings Trustee Ltd.

Gary Gillespie, Chief Economic Advisor, Scottish Government

Gary was appointed Director and Scottish Government Chief Economic Adviser in 2011. He joined the civil service in 2000 from the Fraser of Allander Institute (University of Strathclyde) where his research interests included Scottish economy, regional economic modelling and foreign direct investment.

He provides economic advice to the First Minister and Ministers across a range of strategic economic issues. He publishes regular assessments of the State of the Economy and analysis of key impacts (EU Exit, Covid, Supply chain disruption, inflation etc.) on changes in the Scottish and UK economies. He is a regular participant in economic discussion across Scotland, UK and internationally. He leads engagement on the Wellbeing Economy Government (WEGo) network which was instigated in 2018 and seeks to share best practise in delivering international change.

He was made an Honorary Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University in January 2011 and was appointed to the role of Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde in 2015. He was also appointed a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2017.