Economy: Creative Industry Worth £71bn Annually To UK Economy by Benson Agoha

Britains Creative industry is worth £8m per hour to the Economy, according to the Department for Culture, Media & Sport.

In a Press Release on Tuesday 14 January 2014, the department said the statistics reveal the UK’s creative industries are now worth £71.4 billion per year to the economy.

The data show the industry grew almost 10% in 2012 and outperformed all other sectors of UK industry within the period. It also accounted for 1.68 million jobs in the same period, representing 5.6% of total UK jobs.

The Creative Industries includes the film, television and music industries, Design and Printing, IT, software and computer services and many more.

Employment within the Creative Economy grew by 143 thousand (6.0%) between 2011 and 2012, a higher rate than for the UK Economy as a whole (0.7%), the department of Department for Culture, Media & Sport found.

The report said IT, software and computer services was the largest Creative Economy group, with employment of 791 thousand in 2012 (31% of employment in the Creative Economy).

The statement further said the UK creative industries are renowned across the globe to drive growth, investment and tourism.

Power drivers of the Creative industry include companies involved in software design, like Airtel ATN plc a developer and supplier of software and data communication solutions for the aviation industry and Autonony, which developes specialist software using adaptive pattern recognition techniques for the manufacturing of extremely fast cars, such as those used in formula 1 races, by the auto industry.

The UK creative industry is also a major exporter and foreign exchange earner. The report said the value of services exported by the Creative Industries in 2011 was £15.5 bn, representing 8% of total UK service exports.

And between 2009 and 2011, it said the value of services exported by the Creative Industries increased by 16.1%. This compares with an increase of 11.5% for total UK service exports for the period.

For 2011/2012 the data revealed Creative Economy accounted for 2.55 million jobs or 1 out of every 12 jobs in the UK.

The Creative Industry's Gross contribution to to the National Accounts in general was also outstanding, having increased since 2008 to 15.6%. This compared with an increase of 5.4 per cent for the UK Economy as a whole for the period.

Between 2011 and 2012, the data revealed the Gross Value Added (GVA) of the Creative Industries increased by 9.4%, "higher than for any Blue Book industry sector in the National Accounts".

* Twitter: @bensonagoha.

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