Spending on culture activities increases in Turkey

ISTANBUL

Cultural expenditures increased by 23.4 percent in Turkey compared to the previous year and reached 54,383,287 billion Turkish Liras, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute’s (TÜİK) culture economy report.

According to this, 64.3 percent of the expenditures were the general government cultural expenditures and 35.7 were the private cultural expenditures. The ratio of cultural expenditures to gross domestic product was 1.5 percent in 2018. This rate was around 1.4 percent in 2017.

When expenditures were distributed according to cultural areas in general government expenditures, their shares were as follows: Architecture 35.9 percent, books and print media 11.8 percent, performing arts 8.9 percent, audiovisual and multimedia 8.8 percent, natural heritage 7.4 percent and cultural heritage 5.8 percent.

Also, cultural exports increased by 37.9 percent in 2018 compared to 2017. The increase was 38.9 percent for capital goods exports and 15.6 percent for secondary goods exports, according to the report, and the largest share in exports was in handicrafts.