Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

5International trade in creative goods and services: Global trends and featuresshocks are readily transmitted. Falling global import demandhas severely affected those countries most successful inexport-led growth, calling for a reassessment of export-ledgrowth strategy. Unlike previous crises largely confined toparticular countries/regions, the global contraction indemand has limited countries’ ability to use trade to boostrecovery. International trade may therefore take longer thanpreviously expected to reach its pre-crisis level. Althoughsigns of recovery are now visible in many countries, concernsremain about how robust and sustained the recovery will be.By contrast, international trade in the creative industrieshas continued to grow despite the broader economiccrisis. Over the past decade, creative industries emerged asone of the world’s most dynamic sectors, offering vastopportunities for cultural, social and economic development.International trade of creative products grew at an annualrate of 14.4 per cent between 2002 and 2008. World tradeof creative goods and services reached $592 billion in 2008.The sectors with best penetration in global markets are artsrelatedgoods. Creative services grew even faster between2002 and 2008, with an annual growth rate of 17.1 per cent,compared to 13.5 per cent for world services exports. This isevidence of the dynamism of the creative economy in thecontemporary society.5.3 Global trends in world trade of creative goods and services5.3.1 Global trends in world exportsIn 2008, total exports of all creative-industry productsreached $592 billion (see chart 5.2), with an annual growthrate of 14 per cent since 2002. Export earnings from creativeindustries cover the value of exports of all creative-industryproducts, comprising tangible goods and intangible servicesin each creative sector. 2The value of exports of creative goods grew at an annualrate of 11.5 per cent from 2002 to 2008, when the totalvalue reached $407 billion. As a result, all regions andeconomic groups of countries benefited from higher exportearnings. Exports of creative goods from developed countriespredominated in world markets. At the same time, exportsfrom developing economies more than doubled, from $76 billionto $176 billion, between 2002 and 2008 (see table 5.2).The value of creative services exports rose from $62billion to $185 billion, growing annually by 17 per cent duringthe period 2002-2008 — a faster rate than worldexports of all creative products. On the basis of availablestatistics, creative services accounted for only 31 per cent ofthe total exports of creative industries in 2008. Obviously,this share is underestimated since most countries,both developing and developed, do not report data for allcategories of creative services.Table 5.2 Creative goods: Exports, by economic group, 2002 and 2008 (in millions of $)World2002 2008DevelopedeconomiesDevelopingeconomiesTransitioneconomies2002 2008 2002 2008 2002 2008All Creative Industries 204,948 406,992 127,903 227,103 75,835 176,211 1,210 3,678Art Crafts 17,503 32,323 8,256 11,443 9,202 20,715 45 164Audiovisuals 462 811 425 726 35 75 3 10Design 114,692 241,972 60,967 117,816 53,362 122,439 362 1,716New Media 17,365 27,754 11,422 13,248 5,908 14,423 36 82Performing Arts 9,689 26,136 8,947 22,539 698 3,323 43 274Publishing 29,817 48,266 25,970 38,753 3,157 8,138 690 1,376Visual Arts 15,421 29,730 11,916 22,578 3,474 7,097 31 56Source: UNCTAD, based on official data in UN COMTRADE database2 It should be noted that, owing to the gaps in the availability of data for creative services, figures for exports of creative goods were higher than those for creative services — a distortionof the reality.128 CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 2010