Organic growth was 6% with currency effects having a negative impact of 2.3%.

Revenue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa was up 2% to €370.7m. Americas sales grew 2.5% to €370.4m and in Asia Pacific revenue was up 18% to €104.7m.

Ipsos said public spending cuts in some countries were to blame for a 7% drop in opinion and social research revenue, down to €89.6m, but there was better news in the media research sector which saw revenue jump 23% to €100m while customer relationship management work was up 17% to €93m.

Marketing research (up 2% to €381.1m) and advertising research (up 1% to €182.1m) grew at a slower pace as clients, particularly in mass consumer sectors, took a more “cautious approach”, said Ipsos – warning that many of those same clients are planning to “scale down marketing and advertising initiatives between now and the end of the year”.

The recent acquisition of Synovate had no effect on the results, but integration is underway. Looking ahead, Ipsos said that the merger with Synovate, as well as the sovereign debt crisis and its macro-economic consequences, would cause the firm to lose “one or two points in terms of growth” in the final quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. However, the firm said it expects growth to return to its normal rate by summer 2012 “at the latest”.