WILL CREATIVE INDUSTRIES BECOME DRIVERS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH IN UKRAINE?

The article answers the question whether creative industries can become the drivers of the country’s economic development. The article defines the creative economy and creative industries. The paper shows how the creative economy and innovative economy differ. The basis of the creative economy is culture, and the basis of the innovative economy is technology. The author shows the imperfection of the classification of creative industries in Ukraine. For example, computer equipment is counted together with the software. However, computer equipment (hardware) is an innovative technology, and software is a creative industry. This situation leads to errors in calculating the contribution of creative industries to the GDP of the country. The article contains a comparative analysis of the contribution of creative industries to the economy of OECD countries, the UK and Ukraine. The article presents examples of creative clusters in Ukraine. In addition, it has been shown that most of the creative industries in Ukraine are in the informal economy, and they are not reflected in official statistics. The article draws attention to the peculiarities of the state policy on increasing the share of creative industries in the economy, as well as indicators for assessing the contribution of creative industries to the country’s economic development. The article shows that productivity and growth rates in different sectors of creative industries are different. This is illustrated by the example of two polar sectors: IT and handmade. IT and handmade relate to creative industries and form a creative economy; however, productivity, growth, and return on investments in these sectors are significantly different. So the author concludes that the share of creative economy in different countries is up to 6 %. The drivers of economic development can become creative industries with high rates of growth and profitability, namely IT, the development of video games, and scientific developments.