• by Wayne Friedman , December 28, 2012

Asia-Pacific and Latin America markets will continue to drive worldwide advertising at modest rates for the next five years.

Media advertising spending grew 5.4% to just under $519 billion in 2012 -- up over the 3.6% growth rate in 2011, says eMarketer. This year's growth rate will continue at about the same levels through 2016, topping out at $628 billion.

This year, Latin America witnessed the fastest growth of any region -- up 11% to $34.66 billion, climbing to $51 billion by 2016.

Estimates are that China's ad spending will grow 13% this year to $42.6 billion, eMarketer says. China will also continue to climb -- albeit at a somewhat smaller rate, adding on 12% (2013), 11% (2014), 10% (2015), and 10% (2016) in the coming years, getting to $64 billion by 2016.

Overall, the Asia-Pacific region will grow 8.5% and will continue to climb near double-digit-percentage gains over the coming years.

Although eMarketer estimates U.S. advertising spending this year at an aggressive 4.9% -- higher than other growth projections -- its actual spending number is way below that of other industry projections. The research compnay believes the U.S. will get to $166 billion this year, growing slowly over the coming years to land at $189.2 billion in 2016.

By way of comparison, 11 other estimates are higher than eMarketer's U.S. projections with Veronis Suhler Stevenson topping the list, putting the U.S. at $200 billion in 2012.

Western Europe will virtually stay at the same levels in 2012 as a year ago -- up 0.4% but growing 2.4%, 2.6%, 2.0% and 1.8% in the coming years. The biggest ad spender in Europe, and the fourth-largest in the world, Germany will inch up 1.5% for 2012, totaling nearly $28 billion.

Overall, worldwide ad growth prospects are good, says eMarketer: "Despite fears in many countries of continued or renewed economic slowdowns, the advertising industry is expected to continue growing spending at healthy rates for the next several years, driven especially by increased investments in emerging markets."