Barclays has lowered its global ad spending forecasts for this year and next, the financial firm confirmed in a report to investors Friday. The financial firm now believes global spending will reach nearly $490 billion this year, up 3.5%, a downgrade from its January growth forecast of 4%. Barclays cited ongoing issues in Europe and Asia, where China has imposed TV air-time restrictions as factors in the downgrades. The firm also reported that Internet spending, growing by leaps and bounds in recent years, still has significant growth ahead, given that dollars spent on the medium still significantly lag consumers' time spend online.
In April, the firm upgraded its U.S. growth forecast for 2012 to 4.6%, up more than a half percentage point from its January forecast,
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