The UK government statement of the financial deficit of an independent Wales is grossly exaggerated.
"the UK government annual subvention to Wales, is a UK accounting exercise, and not a calculation of the fiscal gap that would exist in the early days of an independent Wales. The total includes central UK government costs allocated to Wales that would not be relevant to an Independent Wales. This article analyses the most significant elements of the calculation of this published deficit, utilizing the last figures before the impact of Covid 19 on public finances across Europe – pensions, UK national debt repayments, defence expenditure, other non-identified expenditure, and under-estimates of Wales’ share of UK tax revenues. It concludes that those elements of the current subvention that are likely to transfer to an independent Wales, would represent a deficit of approximately €2.6b, before any other changes to taxation, public expenditure or projected economic growth."
This has significant impact on the figures in GERS for Scotland too.