Scotland independence would allow economy to grow, says Sturgeon Nicola Sturgeon says independence would make Scotland a more competitive country. Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that independence would allow Scotland to build a stronger and more competitive country, by putting economic control in the hands of its voters. Speaking before Alex Salmond launched the Scottish National party's official campaign for independence, Sturgeon, the deputy first minister, said the central point of independence was to hand political power over to the people of Scotland. "What we're arguing is that it's best to have a situation where the big decisions about Scotland, about our future, are taken by the people who care most: the people who live here," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. It's not about breakup [of the UK], it's not about separation. We can continue to share things where that makes sense but independence puts powers over our economy, our political life into the hands of the people of Scotland. Sturgeon, also deputy leader of the SNP, rejected suggestions that Scotland's independence would be undermined because it would continue to use sterling as its currency and allow the Bank of England to control monetary policy. She said both an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK would share very similar economic and monetary goals: Scotland's North Sea oil wealth and its whisky exports would greatly help the overall balance of payments for both countries. Unlike the eurozone, which combined the very poorest areas of Greece and the rich nations such as Germany, the nations within the UK had very similar economies and similar GDPs. She said there was "no evidence" that Scotland's international credit rating would be lower than the rest of the UK's - a claim made by some analysts. She denied that staying with the UK's currency rather than joining the euro or setting up its own currency betrayed any nerves or anxieties about Scotland's economic future. "We think [remaining in sterling] would be good for Scotland in terms of the stability but we also think that there would be an advantage for the rest of the UK," she said. It's not in any sense a lack of confidence in Scotland's economy. Scotland is more than capable of surviving as an independent country, because it's more than capable of paying its way. Nevertheless, Sturgeon confirmed that an independent Scotland would set different tax rates to boost its competitiveness - implying that it would want to compete against the rest of the UK for investment. She continued: "The key advantage of independence within a monetary union is the fiscal independence we get. At the moment we have virtually no tax powers in Scotland and therefore we're unable to use fiscal levers to boost the competitiveness of our economy, so fiscal independence within a monetary union [within sterling] is perfectly sensible and advantageous to Scotland. On Friday morning, Salmond will launch his party's long-awaited "Yes Scotland" campaign for the referendum on independence in 2014, centred on a new public declaration supporting separation under the slogan "Scotland's future in Scotland's hands." SNP activists around Scotland are being trained to act as campaigners for independence and urged to attempt to convert and persuade as many colleagues, friends and family members in their areas as possible, and to lobby opinion-formers in their community.