Live music events 'boost economy'

 15 May 2011 Last updated at 21:29 ET  The government should do more to boost the live music industry, UK Music said Large-scale live music events in the UK contribute almost ￡1bn a year to the UK economy, a major industry survey of festivals and concerts suggests.

At least 7.7 million visits to events in 2009 resulted in ￡1.4bn being spent, equivalent to a positive contribution to the economy of ￡864m, UK Music said.

This expenditure sustained the equivalent of 19,700 jobs, it added.

Almost one-fifth of the total spend came from overseas tourists, who spend 25% more than non-music tourists.

'Considerable asset'

UK Music called on the government to implement a live-music tourism strategy to boost the number of visitors to the UK.

"The role of music in terms of creating jobs, in terms of sustaining businesses and in terms of attracting visitors to all regions of this country comes over loud and clear," said Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of UK Music.

"We will do all we can to work with policy-makers and tourism bodies to realise the potential of this considerable economic asset."

The body made a number of recommendations to the government, including:

Addressing concerns over the difficulties that overseas performers encounter with the UK's visa systemWorking with the music industry to ensure that fans have an industry-approved facility to trade and sell on any tickets to live music events that they no longer needEncouraging live music at the grass roots by exempting small venues from the licensing regulations in the 2003 Licensing Act.Local economy

The research suggests that tourists spent ￡196m on concerts and ￡47m on festivals in 2009. UK music lovers spent ￡652m on concerts and ￡499m on festivals.

On top of this, ￡3m in total was spent on associated attractions.

Almost half of the total ￡1.4bn expenditure was spent outside music events, in local businesses such as hotels and restaurants.

Events in London generated the biggest proportion of overall expenditure, with overseas tourists and UK visitors spending more than ￡400m, sustaining almost 4,500 jobs, the report said.

The West Midlands was the next biggest contributing region, followed by north west England.

Bournemouth University's International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research conducted the analysis for UK Music's report, which was based on events attended by more than 5,000 people.

It had access to the data of more than 2.5 million ticket purchases to concerts and music festivals across the UK in 2009.

UK Music is an umbrella organisation representing the interests of the UK's commercial music industry.

Germany and France Bolster the European Economy

 

As a result, the European Commission said in its spring forecast that prospects for 2011 looked “slightly better” than six months ago.

But it also raised some caveats, noting that the pace of recovery would be uneven across the 17-nation bloc for some time to come, that inflation remained a worry and “moreover, despite some improvement in labor markets, the prospect is for a rather jobless recovery.”

The powerhouse in Europe in recent months has been Germany, but the latest data showed that France was catching up. The two countries together account for nearly half the euro zone’s economic output.

The German Federal Statistics Office reported that gross domestic product grew 1.5 percent over the previous quarter, when harsh weather held growth to just 0.4 percent.

The figure was well above analysts’ estimates and showed that Germany’s economy had recovered fully from its worst recession since World War II. “The precrisis level of early 2008 has been exceeded,” the office said.

France, too, surpassed expectations with growth of 1 percent, the steepest increase since spring 2006, according to the statistics office Insee. That compared with an increase of just 0.3 percent in the last quarter of 2010, and a median forecast of economists surveyed by Reuters and Bloomberg News of 0.6 percent.

Over all, G.D.P. grew 0.8 percent in the euro area compared with the pace in the previous quarter, according to the European Union statistics office, Eurostat, somewhat better than economists had expected.

But the strains of austerity measures to rein in gaping deficits were evident as well.

Spain’s economy grew only 0.3 percent from the previous quarter, according to the National Statistics Institute in Madrid. Although that was slightly better than expected, it was largely attributed to exports amid weak domestic demand and high unemployment.

Portugal posted its second quarter of contraction, with its G.D.P. dropping 0.7 percent, according to Eurostat. The country is bracing for continued economic struggles as it awaits a 78 billion euro ($112 billion) bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. With the Finnish Parliament approving the bailout on Friday, European finance ministers are expected to sign off on the package early next week.

That approval had been threatened by the True Finn Party, which opposes bailouts.

Another struggling country, Greece, registered its first quarter of growth since 2008. Output grew 0.8 percent in the first quarter, according to Eurostat, compared with a decline of 2.8 percent in the final quarter of last year.

European stock markets and the euro both slipped lower. While economists called the reports encouraging, especially for Germany and France, they warned that keeping up the momentum would be difficult.

“Looking forward, we expect growth to slow down to more moderate rates, as world trade growth loses some momentum and fiscal policy tightening and higher oil prices kick in,” Aline Schuiling, senior economist at ABN Amro Bank in Amsterdam, wrote in a note. “Nevertheless, the German economy should continue to outperform the euro zone average by a wide margin.”

Oscar Bernal, an economist at ING Bank in Brussels, said that the pickup in industrial activity in France in particular “might just be a catch-up” after the year-end lull.

“All in all, we believe that the first-quarter G.D.P. growth acceleration will only be temporary,” he said, adding that the French government will still face difficulties meeting its budget-deficit reduction targets.

Strong demand for exports like automobiles has fueled the recovery in Germany, as in past recoveries. Domestic demand has typically trailed, leading to criticism from Germany’s trading partners. However, German consumers seem to be gaining confidence this time as unemployment falls sharply.

The German statistics office noted that compared with the last quarter of 2010, domestic consumption was up “markedly,” along with investment by businesses in machinery and equipment and construction.

“The growth of exports and imports continued, too,” it said. “However, the balance of exports and imports had a smaller share in the strong G.D.P. growth than domestic uses.”

The French statistics office noted that manufacturing production soared 3.7 percent in the first quarter, the strongest growth for at least 30 years. Household consumption was also up, but only slightly. Imports grew more rapidly than exports, weighing on the overall growth figure.

 

Sweden has most wired economy

 12 April 2011 Last updated at 17:25 ET  The WEF says becoming totally wired through ICT structures can help nations' economies Sweden and Singapore are the most competitive countries in the digital economy, according to a study by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Nordic and Asian economies are best at using information and communications technologies (ICT) to boost their growth, the WEF said.

Finland is in third place, Switzerland fourth and the United States fifth.

The WEF said ICT was "a key enabler of a more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable world".

Innovation

It said the use of information communications technology was especially important "in the aftermath of one of the most serious economic crises in decades".

The WEF report focuses on the power of ICT to transform society in the next decade through modernisation and innovation.

Other highly-placed Nordic countries include Denmark in seventh spot and Norway in ninth place, with Iceland ranked in 16th position.

Meanwhile, led by Singapore in second place, the other Asian Tiger economies highly placed are Taiwan and South Korea in sixth and tenth position respectively, and Hong Kong following closely in 12th.

Canada completes the top 10 in eighth position.

The report, which covers 138 economies, looks at three areas.

They are the general business, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT; the readiness of the three key stakeholder sectors - individuals, businesses and governments - to use and benefit from ICT; and the actual usage of available ICT.

 

World Bank report finds selling virtual goods in games more profitable than 'real' economy

 A report commissioned by the World Bank's infoDev unit has cast fresh light on one of the more fascinating aspects of our brave new interconnected world: the virtual economy. The "third-party gaming services industry" -- where wealthy but impatient players have someone else grind away at online games for them in exchange for monetary reward -- is one of the focal points of the study, chiefly owing to it having generated revenues in the region of $3 billion in 2009 and now serving as the primary source of income for an estimated 100,000 young folks, primarily in countries like China and Vietnam. What's encouraging about these findings is that most of the revenue from such transactions ends up in the country where the virtual value is produced, which contrasts starkly with some of the more traditional international markets, such as that for coffee beans, where the study estimates only $5.5 billion of the $70 billion annual market value ever makes it back to the producing country. The research also takes an intriguing look at the emerging phenomenon of microwork, which consists of having unskilled workers doing the web's version of menial work -- checking images, transcribing bits of text, bumping up Facebook Likes (naughty!), etc. -- and could also lead to more employment opportunities for people in poorer nations. To get better acquainted with the details, check the links below or click past the break.