The Americas the only region to see growth in marketing spend, according to July WARC global report
The Americas was the only region to contribute to net growth in marketing spend, recording an index value of 55.5.
The latest data from Warc’s Global Marketing Index (GMI) found that global budgets show modest growth, standing at 51.5, where above 50.0 means generally improving and below indicates a general decline.
As well as tracking global budgets, Warc’s GMI also looks at trading conditions and staffing levels across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
The index of global trading conditions weakened slightly in the Americas, but continues to stand at a 58.5.
In the Americas, the index of staffing declined 4.1 points to 55.1, marking the biggest decline for all global regions.
However, the headline GMI for the Americas - which combines staffing, global trading and budgets - for July hit an eight-month low of 56.4
Globally the headline GMI stands at 54.3, a dip from June’s 55.9.
Europe's headline GMI stands on 52.9, with the marketing budget index improving slightly, from 48.3 to 49.7. But those for trading conditions and staffing levels were down 1.3 points and 1.7 points respectively. Both, however, were still above 50.0.
Asia Pacific recorded the greatest slowdown in headline GMI, down 3.6 points to 54.6. The outlook for marketing budgets also dipped the most in that region, falling 5.5 points to 50.0.
Suzy Young, data and journals Director at Warc, suggested the outlook was less optimistic than in recent months: "But the index continues to indicate overall growth which is encouraging, and we're in a better position than this time last year," she said.