WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell said the world needs to adjust to a slower global economy with 3 per cent or 4 pe rcent real growth, which means that businesses will rein in their plans.

“It’s unrealistic to believe companies are going to be aggressive in their expansion plans when faced with fast-growth markets slowing and slow-growth markets that are still very challenged,” Mr Sorrell, who heads the world’s largest advertising company, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Clients have to deal with lower growth while keeping costs down, Mr Sorrell said. WPP is forecasting like-for-like growth of about 3 per cent or 3-per cent-plus, with small- or medium-sized acquisitions adding 2 per cent to 3 per cent this year, he said.

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At the end of October, London-based WPP reported sales growth slowed in the third quarter and said the end of 2014 wouldn’t be much better as business in North America and the UK cooled.

Bloomberg