to the Performance by Business Segment section for a more detailed discussion of the results of the respective segments.



Worldwide total sales growth was 3.3 percent in 2008. Local-currency sales growth was 1.4 percent for 2008, including a 3.3 percentage point benefit from acquisitions. Local-currency sales increased 18.3 percent in Safety, Security and Protection Services (including 14.1 percentage points from acquisitions), 6.8 percent in Health Care (including 1.7 percentage points from acquisitions) and 4.6 percent in Industrial and Transportation (including 3.9 percentage points from acquisitions). Local-currency sales declined 0.3 percent in Consumer and Office, 1.7 percent in Electro and Communications and 17.9 percent in Display and Graphics.

 

In 2007, worldwide total sales increased 6.7 percent. Local-currency sales growth was 7.3 percent, with organic local-currency growth of 4.9 percent (including 0.7 percentage point benefit from pharmaceuticals supply agreements) and acquisitions adding 2.4 percent. Divestitures, primarily the sale of the global branded pharmaceuticals business (Health Care segment), decreased worldwide sales growth by 3.8 percent. The sale of the pharmaceuticals business was not presented as a discontinued operation due to the extent of the projected continuing cash flows from 3M’s contractual supply relationship with the buyers in relation to those of the business that was sold.

 

Geographically, Latin America and Canada led local-currency sales growth in 2008, with a combined increase of 12.8 percent, followed by Europe, Middle East and Africa (hereafter referred to as Europe) with a 2.8 percent increase and the United States with a 2.7 percent increase. Local-currency sales in Asia Pacific declined 5.9 percent. Asia Pacific was negatively impacted by Optical Systems sales, which were down 34 percent in that region. Excluding Optical Systems, Asia Pacific sales increased nearly 6 percent on a local-currency basis. Of the local-currency sales growth, acquisitions contributed 3.2 percent to the combined Latin America and Canada, 3.2 percent to Europe, 5.3 percent to the United States, and 0.8 percent to Asia Pacific. Foreign currency translation positively impacted international sales by 3.4 percent, as the U.S. dollar weakened in aggregate against many currencies in these geographic areas. Foreign currency translation positively impacted Latin America and Canada by 2.4 percent, Europe by 4.0 percent and Asia Pacific by 3.2 percent. In the fourth quarter of 2008, foreign currency negatively impacted international sales by 7.5 percent. While difficult to predict given the current exchange rate volatility, foreign currency is also expected to have a significant negative impact in 2009.

 

Worldwide operating income for 2008 decreased 15.7 percent year-on-year, with most of this impact due to the year-on-year change in special items discussed at the end of this overview. In the preceding table, Health Care operating income in 2007 included significant gains related to the sale of portions of its pharmaceuticals business in 2007, negatively impacting the 2008 versus 2007 year-on-year comparisons for this