Cultural expenditures increased last year in Turkey

ISTANBUL

Cultural expenditures increased by 4.7 percent in Turkey in 2019 compared to the previous year and reached 56.9 million Turkish Liras.

According to data provided by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK), 59.8 percent of the cultural expenditures were made by general government and 40.2 percent were private cultural expenditures. The rate of the total cultural expenditures in the gross domestic product was 1.3 percent in 2019. This figure was 1.5 percent in 2018.

General government expenditures on culture decreased by 2.5 percent in 2019 compared to 2018 and it was 34 million liras. Some 71.7 percent of the expenditures were made from the central government budget and 28.3 percent from the local government budget.

When government expenditures on culture were distributed according to cultural areas, the shares were as follows: Architecture 28.5 percent, books and press 12.3 percent, performing arts 10.3 percent, audiovisual and multimedia 9.7 percent, cultural heritage 6 percent and natural heritage 5.2 percent.

The distribution of household expenditure on culture was as follows: Television and TV equipment 21.9 percent, books 13.9 percent, stationery and drawing materials 11.4 percent, wired/private TV broadcasting service charges 10.8 percent, data processing equipment 10.4 percent, and cinema, theater and concert 6.2 percent.

While total turnover of enterprises in cultural sectors increased by 11.4 percent in 2019 compared to 2018 and became 84.2 million liras, the number of people employed decreased by 3.9 percent and became 256,129.