THE CREATIVE INDUSTRY’S contribution to the Philippine economy slightly dipped in 2022, even as it grew by 12%, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday.
Preliminary data from the PSA showed the creative industry’s share to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) slipped to 7.3% last year from 7.4% in 2021.
This was the creative sector’s lowest share to GDP since the earliest available data up to 2018.
In terms of gross value added, the creative economy stood at P1.6 trillion last year, a 12.1% increase from P1.43 trillion in 2021.
According to the PSA, the creative economy includes films, digital services, media publishing, music, arts, entertainment, advertising, art galleries, museums, and trade shows.
The PSA said symbols, images and other related activities accounted for nearly a third (32.9%) or P528.35 billion of the creative industry’s total gross value added.
Advertising, research and development contributed 20.8% or P333.92 billion, while digital interactive goods and service activities added 20.3% or P325.44 billion.
Media publishing and printing activities accounted for 11.2% or P179.14 billion of the industry’s total gross value added in 2022.
PSA data also showed there were 6.98 million Filipinos employed in the creative industry in 2022, up 10.5% year on year. However, the growth in employment was slower than the 14.5% increase seen previously.
Broken down, 42.5% or 2.97 million were employed by companies involved in traditional cultural expression activities, followed by symbols and images and other related activities (24.8% or 1.73 million) and advertising, research and development, and other artistic service activities (18% or 1.26 million).
Union Bank of the Philippines, Inc. Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion said creative sector benefited from the increasing digitalization of the economy.
“Internet penetration and smartphone ownership growth have highly encouraged growth of the creative economy,” he said in an e-mail interview.
“I think that it is going to continue its growth in the coming years as more and more people get involved in this growing segment of the overall economy,” he added. — Lourdes O. Pilar
