The Globalisation of Cultural Trade: A Shift in Consumption. International flows of cultural goods and services 2004-2013

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to present the results of the analysis of international cultural trade data for the period 2004-2013.Furthermore, this report aims to shed light on the impact that the global financial and economic crisis of 2008 has had on the flows of cultural goods and services.Finally, it describes innovative models and statistics that have been developed to improve the accuracy of these data.• The results illustrate the dematerialisation of some cultural goods.Several cultural goods are now accessible electronically and are traded much less as physical commodities.Dematerialsation has had a great impact on music, and newspaper production is declining rapidly.However, books remained an important exported and imported cultural good in some regions.• Flows of cultural goods are still recovering from the financial and economic crisis of 2008, which primarily affected developed countries.• China surpassed the United States as lead exporter of cultural goods in 2010.However, the United States has remained the world's largest importer of cultural goods.• During the last ten years, India, Turkey and Malaysia have emerged as leading exporters of cultural goods.• The demand for cultural goods is still largely driven by developed countries primarily from North America and Europe and East Asia.• Low-income economies in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Arab States, are still playing a marginal role in international flows of cultural goods and services.• Developing countries largely export visual arts goods, such as statuettes, as well as textile crafts and articles of jewellery.Developed countries trade mainly in jewellery, fine arts and books.• Articles of gold jewellery are the most traded cultural good.This is largely due to the high price of gold and the fact that gold is considered to be a safe investment during economic crises.• Audiovisual services are increasingly becoming the most important cultural service traded.• Despite the growing importance of China, cultural trade between North-North countries has remained strong while overall South-South trade in cultural goods has remained weak.• The availability of international data on cultural services has increased with the introduction of new classifications and new data sources such as Foreign Affiliates Trade Statistics which is an important tool for assessing cultural flows.Nonetheless, cultural services statistics are still limited for developing countries.• The last decade witnessed greater cooperation amongst international organizations in the promotion and improvement of cultural trade statistics.

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