Global trade in creative economy up to $624b in 2011 – Report
World trade in creative goods and services totalled a record $624 billion in 2011, up from $559.5 billion in 2010, a UN report said May 15, 2013.
According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) global database, the world’s creative economy has now exceeded its pre-crisis peak of $620.4 billion in exports in 2008.
It said global exports of creative goods and services such as arts and crafts, books, graphic and interior design works, fashion, films, music, new media, printed media, visual, as well as audiovisuals, picked up in 2011 from $536 billion in 2009 and $559 billion in 2010.
Figures presented in the UNCTAD report showed the creative services exports (as opposed to creative goods) jumped to $172 billion in 2011, up from $163.8 billion in 2010, and a near tripling in terms of value from the 2002 total of $62 billion.
The minor decrease in the overall consumption of creative products after 2008, economists at the Geneva-based UN trade agency say “reflected the fragility of the post-crisis recovery in developed countries mainly due to the rise of public deficits, currency volatility, and high levels of unemployment, especially in the most advanced countries.”
Architecture and related services, cultural and recreational services, audiovisual services, advertising, and research and development services are the core activities comprising creative services, UNCTAD officials said.
UNCTAD said the creative-economy statistics are based on official national data provided by governments.
By Ekow Quandzie