The culture budget is always one of the first to be cut in troubled economic times. To demonstrate the error of this way of thinking, French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti, who gave her annual New Year’s address to the press yesterday, commissioned a report on culture’s contribution to the French economy. The results are in: in 2011, cultural activities represented 3.2 percent of France’s gross domestic product, twice that of agriculture and seven times that of the auto industry. The cultural sector, worth a total of €104.5 billion, contributes €57.8 billion in added value to the economy and represents 670,000 jobs. The report, prepared by the Inspection Générale des Finances and the Inspection Générale des Affaires Culturelles, also noted that festivals have a substantial positive impact on local economies and that there is a positive correlation between a cultural venture and the socioeconomic development of an area.
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