During 2020, the first year of face-to-face restrictions and economic instability due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the cultural sector contributed some 640,687 million pesos to the country, which represented a 2.9% share of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) .
This means that the percentage contribution fell two tenths of a point in just one year, given that in 2019 it was 3.1%, and is a confirmation of the persistent downward trend of cultural contribution in the last decade, since in 2009 the weight of the sector in the national GDP was 4%, that is to say that from 2009 to 2020 the decrease in the contribution of culture has been more than one percentage point.
These data were released this Thursday on the occasion of the update of the Satellite Account of Culture of Mexico 2020, in charge of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
In the breakdown by functional classification of that 2.9% of GDP corresponding to culture, 37.8% of the great total derives from audiovisual media, that is, from cultural activity via the Internet, the broad sector of cinematography, radio, television and the videogames. In the second step of weight in the contribution appears the section called “Cultural production of households”, which includes activities such as volunteer work in the organization of cultural activities, such as national, religious or carnival festivities; the elaboration of handicrafts for their own use and the trade of cultural products on public roads, with 20% of the total cultural GDP.
Not so far away is the production of popular art with 18.3% and much lower is the contribution of sectors such as design and creative services (8.4%), training and cultural diffusion in educational institutions (5.4%), performing arts and shows ( 3.8%), books, prints and press (2.6%), material and natural heritage (1.6%), visual and plastic arts (1.1%), as well as music and concerts, with 1.1% of the contribution to cultural GDP.
Confinement strengthened remote activities
It is necessary to indicate that the calculations of growth or decrease of the sector are estimated with 2013 as the base year. According to these indicators, performing arts and shows were the item that contracted the most during 2020, with -43.1%, followed by music and concerts, with -27.1% and books, prints and press, with -24.5 percent.
However, if a direct comparison of the last years is made in the contribution of each item to the cultural GDP, the evidence of growth and decrease is not so different.
In the updates of the Satellite Account of Culture of Mexico for the last three years, a modest but sustained increase in the contribution of audiovisual media to cultural GDP is observed: in 2018 it was 36.8% and for 2020 it was 37.8%, a year in which this item was favored by the confinement and the increase in cultural consumption in virtuality, a situation that should also have benefited the so-called cultural production of households, which also took a step forward in the share of GDP. cultural, from 18.6% in 2018 to 20% in 2020.
In contrast, there were two groups of activities that were less favored: performing arts and shows, which went from 5.5% of the contribution to GDP of culture to 3.8% in 2020, and books, printing and press, which was at 3.5 % in two years ago and was left with a contribution of 2.6% in the recent report.
Finally, Inegi reported that in 2020 just over 1.2 million jobs were generated in culture, that is -12.4% if compared to the previous year. 36% of those jobs came from popular art.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx