Luxury, economic engine of Europe

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Dec 11, 2014

Will luxury save Europe? Whatever the case, the sector is flourishing in spite of the economic crisis, as illustrated in a report by Frontier Economics prepared for ECCIA, the European alliance of creative and cultural industries. 

Union European brands account for 70% of the global luxury market, according to ECCIA. If high-end sectors were considered collectively as a nation, it would be the 7th largest European economy and 20th largest globally.

Between 2010 and 2013, European luxury industry sales jumped by 28%, reaching 547 billion euros in 2013 as compared with 428 billion in 2010, equivalent to 4% of the EU’s GDP (as compared with 3% three years earlier), according to ECCIA’s report, which valued the global luxury market at 792 billion euros in 2013. 

Exports of European luxury goods reached 308 billion euros in 2013, or 17% of all goods exported by the EU, which amounts to 1.7 trillion euros. The luxury industry employs 1.7 million people in Europe, as compared with 1.5 million in 2010, and in three years, it has created 200,000 jobs.

"Thanks to the sector’s continued growth, we offer opportunities to young people from across Europe in what is a more complicated time economically. Our industry has grown out of the virtues of traditional craftsmanship, culture and creativity to become Europe’s Silicon Valley," said Michael Ward, president of ECCIA and managing director of the British department store Harrods.

€1 = £0.79 = $1.24