CHICAGO — Most countries experienced modest growth in foodservice consumer spending and traffic in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to The NPD Group.

China led the growth with a 15 percent gain in foodservice visits and a 22 percent increase in consumer spending when compared with the same quarter of the previous year. Canada had a 3 percent increase in visits. The United States had a 2 percent increase in spending and a 1 percent increase in traffic.

“The broad-based increases in traffic counts represents a continuation of the trends we’ve seen over the past quarters,” said Bob O’Brien, NPD’s senior vice president of global foodservice. “More foodservice visits on top of check boosts are driving the growth in consumer spending, which gives us some hope that global recovery is under way.”