Magnaglobal:lowers global ad outlook

With the continuing economic turmoil in Europe, MagnaGlobal has downgraded its projection for global advertising this year, lowering its expectation for growth to 4.8 percent from a 5 percent forecast in December.

Global advertising will hit $480 billion this year, with the U.S. accounting for $152 billion, more than any other market.

But there are still some trouble spots coming out of the recession, most notably Western Europe, where ad spending will be down 0.2 percent this year, Magna predicts.

Germany and the UK are the only healthy markets in the region, with the latter lifted significantly by this summer's London Olympics.

U.S. advertising will grow at a slightly slower pace than worldwide spending, up 4 percent. That number includes Olympic spending, forecast to come in at $630 million, and political spending, forecast at $2.5 billion.