Estimates Say GDP Down

GDP was estimated to have fallen by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2012 comapred with the previous quarter according to a statistical bulletin from the ONS.

The production industries output was said to have decreased by 1.8% over the quarter, construction increased its output by 0.3% but in services there was no change. GDP as a whole remained the same as compared with Q4 2011. Transport, storage and communications increased by 0.7% with the largest contributions coming from motion picture, video and TV and programming and broadcasting. Business services and finance also increased by 0.4% with the largest contribution coming from employment activities. The agriculture sector fell by 0.6% on the same period in the previous year. While agriculture did not contribute to the change in GDP quarter on quarter, on the year on year analysis agriculture decreased by 3%.

The growth rate of the level of GDP was affected by two factors worthy of note. The level of GDP in the third quarter was helped by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and there are some signs of a 'fall back' from these events. The other factor that should be borne in mind was the longer than expected maintenance of the largest North Sea oil field which reduced the oil and gas extraction component for the quarter.

Creative Businesses in the UK

The number of businesses in the creative industries in the UK grew from 125,300 in 2007 to 157,400 in 2008. The sub-sector with the largest number of new businesses was the software, computer games and electronic publishing category which increased by 18,200 additional businesses from 56,800 in 2007 to 75,000 in 2008. Advertising, music and the visual and performing arts also had significant increases in numbers of businesses.

The increase in the number of creative businesses did not bring an similar increase in the number of people employed in the creative industries. In fact there was a significant fall in their number. The software, computer games and electronic publishing category increased their numbers by 40,700 to 681,600. The largest percentage increase was in architecture at 8%, from 120,700 to 130,100, a difference of 9,400. There were also increases in the numbers of people employed in the advertising (1%), art and antiques (6%), music and the visual and performing arts (4%) categories but these were offset by decreases in crafts (-7%), design and designer fashion (-18%), video, film and photography (-3%), publishing and radio and TV (-3%). There was an overall decrease of 7,000 in the number of people employed in the creative industries in the UK in 2008.