Latvia/ 6.2 Public cultural expenditure  

6.2.2 Public cultural expenditure broken down by level of government

In general, there is a tendency to give over more cultural functions to municipalities; meanwhile municipal budgets have been reduced. Provisional estimates show that the share of municipal expenditure for culture has increased: in 2007, the expenditure of municipalities amounted to 43% of the total public expenditure, while in 2010 the share of local spending for culture increased to 54%.

Due to the economic crisis, spending by municipalities on recreation and culture has significantly reduced: in 2010 municipalities spent 37.4% less on culture, recreation and religion than in 2008 (see Table 7). Precise date on expenditure for cultural activities is not available, as the municipality budget for culture includes the costs for building cultural infrastructure.

Table 6:     Public cultural expenditure: by level of government, in million LVL, 2010

Source:     The State Regional Development Agency, The Ministry of Culture.

Table 7:     Expenditure on recreation, culture and religion by municipalities (basic budget), 2008-2010

Source:     The State Regional Development Agency: Survey "Development of Regions in Latvia", 2008-2010.

Your Comments on this Chapter?