• Reuters via ABC News, Tuesday, April 1, 2008 11 AM

Ad spending in North America and Western Europe is expected to grow by 3.8% this year, according to a study by ZenithOptimedia, down from the agency's previous estimate of a 4.4% rise. While the credit crunch is hitting mature markets in big way, the shop actually upped its 2008 forecasts in the rest of the world to 11.1% from 10.9%, but lowered its total global guess to 6.5% from 6.7%.

That follows a move by media network Carat earlier this month to trim its global ad spending growth forecast to 6% from 6.2%. Zenith, part of French conglomerate Publicis, expects strong advertising markets in Asia, central and eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East to grow above global trends in 2009 and 2010. The fastest-growing markets for ad spend between 2007 and 2010 are expected to be Russia and China with growth of 92.1% and 61.5%, respectively.

China's market, currently just 8% the size of the U.S. one, is also seen rising from the fifth to fourth-largest market by 2010. By then, Russia will move to No. 7 from No. 11.

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