Photo taken on Nov. 1, 2018 shows a night view of Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said Wednesday that one of its recent reports on the creative economy shows that China's trade in creative goods and services is outstripping those of other countries and regions.
This makes it the "driving force behind a prosperous creative economy over the past 15 years", said UNCTAD in a statement here.
The report tracks the country's performance in the trade of creative goods and services between 2002 and 2015 and finds that China is the biggest single exporter and importer.
UNCTAD said that China's trade in creative goods between 2002 and 2015 grew exponentially, at an annual rate of 14 percent.
In 2002, China's trade in creative goods amounted to 32 billion U.S. dollars. By 2014, this figure had increased more than fivefold, climbing to 191.4 billion U.S. dollars.
There was a drop off in 2015 when China recorded a 168.5-billion-U.S.-dollar trade in creative goods, but comparatively the country has maintained the lion's share of the trade in creative goods.
"China's contribution to the global creative economy is both important and has driven more than a decade's worth of growth in creative industries and services," said UNCTAD creative economy head, Marisa Henderson.
Currently, China is the world's biggest art market, and the film market is set to expand.
The country's creative economy growth is fueled by internet accessibility, a big consumer marketplace, and a growing digital economy, both closely integrated with the creative economy.
The data also shows that Asia outpaced all other regions, with China and South East Asia, combined accounting for 228 billion U.S. dollars of creative exports, almost double that of Europe.
Besides China, India, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, and the Philippines were also among the top performing developing economies stimulating global trade in creative goods.
"Generally, South-South trade is on the rise and looks set to be an area of vibrant future growth especially for the creative economy, where the Asian nations are currently very strong performers," said Henderson.
Among developed economies, the United States, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, and Japan were the top 10 creative goods exporters.
