New York, NY – Retail sales of licensed merchandise worldwide increased 1.7 percent in 2013, rising to $155.8 billion from $153.2 billion in 2013, according to The Licensing Letter.

The US and Canada, the largest territory by far, with a 62.5 percent share of the global market for licensed goods, drove much of the growth, rising 2.2 percent to $97.5 billion.

However, many smaller licensing markets grew at a faster pace with China up 9.2 percent, India up 8.3 percent, Russia up 6.1 percent, and Brazil up 3.9 percent.

Sales of licensed consumer products in Western Europe declined 0.9 percent, with ‘Benelux’ and France seeing their rates of decline worsen compared to 2012.

Western Europe is the second largest territory for licensed merchandise, with retail sales of $31.3 billion in 2013.

“Japan was essentially flat — up 0.2 percent to $10.1 billion, but that represents an important turnaround as licensing there was 31.5 percent greater in 2008 than in 2013, with 2013 the first year in that period to see an increase,” the publication said.

06/21/2014