Mortgages and imported goods could become dearer if the pound is ditched too soon in an Sturgeon defends new currency plan for independent Scotland , a key SNP adviser has warned.
Andrew Wilson also claimed there was a risk of wages and pensions being cut.
The former MSP headed an SNP commission on currency plans post-independence that concluded that Scotland should retain the pound initially, before shifting to a new currency if, and when, six stringent economic tests were met.
Delegates at the SNP conference last weekend voted to replace the pound “as soon as practicable”.
Writing in a newspaper, Wilson said: “If it is anticipated that there is to be a very early move to set up a Scottish currency, then the immediate risk is either of devaluation or the opposite.
Sturgeon defends new currency plan for independent Scotland
“If it was to fall, say, 10 per cent against the pound, it would mean that mortgages owed in pounds got 10 per cent more expensive. Goods bought from outside Scotland would become more expensive overnight.
“If it was to rise by 10 per cent, it would mean pensions or wages paid in sterling dropped by 10 per cent.”
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Wilson warned that it would be a “losing ticket” to go into a second independence referendum arguing for an immediate new currency.
Speaking in Holyrood, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “An independent Scotland, which I look forward to happening very soon, would use the pound while that was in our interests until such times as the conditions were right to move to a different arrangement.”
Scots Tory finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: “This devastating critique highlights the eye-watering cost of independence to ordinary people. No wonder Sturgeon wants to downplay it.”
