United Nations, Jan 15: India’s creative goods exports nearly tripled from $ 7.4 billion in 2005 to $ 20.2 billion in 2014, making it one of the world’s leading exporters of such products in the top 10 developing economies, according to a UN report.
China is the biggest single exporter and importer of creative goods and services.
The second edition of the periodic Creative Economy Outlook: Trends in International Trade in Creative Industries examines the global picture and also features 130 country profiles with reported creative goods and services trade data. The data, which covers the period 2002 to 2015, shows the creative economy’s contribution to world trade.
Over this period, the value of the global market for creative goods doubled from $208 billion in 2002 to $509 billion in 2015.
“China, Hong Kong (China), India, Singapore, Taiwan Province of China, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico and the Philippines were the top 10 performing developing economies stimulating global trade in creative goods,” the report said.
Among developed economies, the US, France, Italy, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium and Japan were the top 10 creative goods exporters.
In India, design goods accounted for the largest share of creative goods exports with a value of $ 17.9 billion in 2014. Jewellery was a key export at $ 13.2 billion followed by fashion accessories at $ 3.2 billion.
The US was India’s top export partner for creative goods in 2005 but the country slipped to second place in 2014, when the UAE emerged as India’s top trading partner, it said.
The report noted that India’s fashion industry is likely to continue its growth as the country has a large young population. Art crafts (carpet and yarn products) was another dynamic sector with exports at $ 1.5 billion in 2014. India had a positive trade balance in creative goods trade, which stood at USD 15.4 billion in 2014.
The report added the Indian animation and visual effects industry (VFX) grew at 16.4 per cent in 2016 to reach a size of $8.2 billion.