In its latest International Ad Forecast, Warc said that adspend is to increase by 3% at current prices in 2013 and would also rise by 5.4% in 2014.

However, if forecast inflation was taken into account, global adspend will rise by just 0.6% in 2013 and 2.4% in 2014.

Following an estimated 3.8% growth at current prices in 2012, Warc said the adspend slowdown for 2013 was due to the absence of the Olympics and the US presidential election, which boosted adspend last year, and ongoing concerns about the health of the global economy, in particular the eurozone debt crisis.

Data and journals director at Warc Suzy Young said: “With few major political or sporting events this year global advertising spend growth was always expected to be slower than in 2012. The Eurozone debt crisis also continues to depress growth both among member countries and abroad.”

The forecast said BRIC countries were expected to be the faster growing adspend markets with Russia predicted to record the greatest increase in adspend in 2013 at 12.4% followed by Brazil at 9.5%, China 9% and India 7.9%.

However, with the exception of Brazil and Japan, all featured markets have seen downgrades to their forecasts for 2013 compared with November’s report, with eurozone countries all seeing flat or negative growth in advertising spend for 2013.