Adspend growth hit by European slowdown

By contrast, North America is due to experience a 4.2% lift to $172bn. This includes a 3.6% uptick in the US.

Elsewhere, Asia Pacific is likely to enjoy a 6.2% gain in adspend to $140bn, as Latin America registers a 10.1% leap to $38bn. Central and Eastern Europe is also predicted to witness a 1.8% expansion to $27bn, while the Middle East and North Africa improves by 1% to $4.2bn.

"Advertisers are broadly continuing to invest, despite the global economic concerns and issues," said Steve King, ZenithOptimedia's global CEO. "The US continues to deliver solid growth. This, combined with the growth in developing markets and in digital media, has helped mitigate the drop in eurozone spending."

By medium, newspaper ad sales could fall by 2.8% this year to $94bn, with magazines recording a 2.9% contraction to $44bn. More positively, TV should see demand harden by 4.5% to $200bn.

The internet will supply the most rapid acceleration, up by 15.4% to $88bn, as its worldwide share increases from 16% to 17.8%, largely at the expense of print titles.

Looking further ahead, ZenithOptimedia suggested that adspend would grow by 4.6% in 2013, to a value of $525bn. Emerging markets, benefiting from an average expansion of 8%, will fuel this process.

The eurozone, should it remain intact, will return to modest growth of 0.9% next year. North America will also log a 3.6% improvement on an annual basis.

In 2013, global revenues are anticipated to surge by 4.6% to $525bn, with a 5.2% increase to $552bn expected for 2014, the agency added.