The Ministry of Sports, together with the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane), presented yesterday a report of the official figures of the sector to the economy, with the ‘sport satellite account’, in order to publicize the contribution of the sector, as well as some activities related to the economy.
(Read: Why the Colombian economy will be the one that will grow the most in the OECD).
“Sport has some very important linkages in the country’s economic activity”assured the director of Dane, Juan Daniel Oviedo, who affirmed that the products directly associated with sports had been contributing in recent years an average of 0.25 percentage points of production at basic prices in the economy for about $4 billion.
These accounts include sporting goods, sports shoes, promotional services, organization and operation of sports facilities and the public offering of these services.
It is worth mentioning that this level of production was affected in 2020, by the pandemic, and fell to $2.5 billion, this being the latest data available on an annual consolidated basis.
Among some of the activities highlighted by the statistical authority and that are related to sports are outdoor sports constructions for football, baseball, rugby, athletics, tennis, car or bicycle racing and horse racing, among other sports, golf courses or ports for pleasure boats.
These reported an advance of 26.2% in the first quarter and contributed 0.3 points to the growth of all civil works.
The Dane presented information from the ‘National Survey of the use of time’, according to which, 24.9% of the population performs physical activities with the aim of feeling better, and that 11.5% daily participate freely in some sport, dance, do yoga, physical exercise or go to the gym.
The figures of the department also highlight that 6% of people under 5 years of age carry out sports activities and that 11.8% of children and young people between 5 and 17 years of age who study, attend courses, practices or sports schools outside of the day school.
(Read: Analysis: doubts and certainties of Petro and Hernández in economic matters).
For his part, the Minister of Sports, Guillermo Herrera, stressed that these inputs “allow us to guide sports policies in the medium and long term”, and recognized that this is a sector with a significant gap in statistics and measurements.
“Being able to work on the sports satellite account is a great contribution for the country,” said the minister, and acknowledged that this is key to greater budget allocations.
LAURA LUCIA BECERRA ELEJALDE
