November 14, 2007 (LPAC)--According to The Scottsman, Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, for the first time today, set a target date for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom. Salmond made the announcement that he anticipated that Scotland would break away from the UK by 2017. The context for the announcement was the presentation of the Scottish National Party's (SNP) first budget in government. The 42-page document outlines a strategy to bring Scotland's economic growth rate up to that of the UK by 2011. This could be done with Scotland as a part of the UK, Salmond maintained. However, Scotland would need the full powers of independence to achieve all of the targets in the document. Salmond said: "Over the last 30 years, Scotland's growth has averaged just 1.8 per cent -- around a half of the average rate of growth for small European countries. Over the last 25 years, this same figure can be compared to the UK's growth rate of 2.3 per cent. It would be much easier if we had the full powers of an independent country. Therefore, I was anticipating being in that position by 2017."