WARC's latest GMI report presents mixed outlook

WARC's "headline" GMI, which aggregates monthly responses from a global panel of marketers regarding trends in marketing budgets, trading conditions and staffing levels, recorded a reading of 52.5 in December, up from 50.1 in November. (In the GMI report, anything above 50 is "generally improving", while anything below is "generally declining".)

The headline GMI for Asia-Pacific increased to 51.5 from 51.2 in November. The Americas remains the most bouyant region, with a 56.8 reading in December exceeding November's 53.2. Europe remains below the neutral line at 49.7 in December, compared with 48.2 in November.

Turning to the individual components that make up the "headline" number, Asia-Pacific marketers feel generally positive about trading conditions (55.6) and staffing levels (51.0), but generally negative about marketing budgets (48)—although the latter number is an improvement over November's 46.8.