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You Think You Spend A Lot of Money On Toys?
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 Worldwide toy industry sales (traditional toys and video games) in 1999 totaled US$71.095 billion, a nearly 5% increase from 1998 sales of US$67.76 billion, according to the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI), the organization of toy manufacturing associations. The announcement came at ICTI's 26th annual meeting, which was held May 29-30 in Rome; in attendance were 35 representatives from 17 member associations. According to ICTI President David Miller, the sales figures are included in a recently published ICTI brochure, "World Toy Facts and Figures." The statistics are compiled by the international market research firm The NPD Group Worldwide. This is the second edition of the brochure, which was first published in March 1999. The brochure also includes: worldwide traditional toy sales excluding video (US$55.65 billion in 1999); sales by channel of distribution (35% of worldwide toy sales occur at general merchandise retailers, including hypermarts and discounters), and the average expenditure per child worldwide (US$34). There is also a breakdown of these statistics by region -- North America, Europe, Asia, Latin & South America, the Middle East, Oceania and Africa. "World Toy Facts and Figures" is available on the ICTI web site Founded in 1974, the International Council of Toy Industries consists of toy trade associations from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The ICTI Secretariat is held currently by Toy Manufacturers of America, Inc., the New York City-based U.S. toy trade association. Source: International Council of Toy Industries [Posted 6/09/2000]
  
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