Creative industries add almost £25bn to UK trade balance

Creative industries continued to be net exporters of both goods and services for the UK economy, according to 2021 data recently published by the UK Government.

In services, the trade surplus generated by the UK creative industries was £18.7bn in 2021, with total creative industries service exports worth £45.6bn, compared to total creative industries services imports of £26.9bn.

The 2021 trade surplus in creative goods was smaller at £2.1bn, though still the largest of the sectors covered by the UK government's Department for Culture, Media & Sport, which includes as well as creative industries, the cultural and sport industries.

The USA (£17.6bn) was the largest recipient country of services exported by businesses in DCMS sectors in 2021, followed by Germany (£3.7bn). Similarly, the USA (£48bn) was the largest recipient country for services exported by businesses in the UK economy as a whole, followed by Germany (£29.6 bn).To all the top five countries, businesses in the creative industries were the largest exporters of services in DCMS sectors.

Overall, the creative industries accounted for 15.9 per cent of all UK service exports and 2.2 per cent of all UK exports of goods in 2021.

See full data release here at www.gov.uk

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