The company said the market in 2010 had been “more robust than anticipated”. Like-for-like revenue was up 10.5% for the quarter. Sales for the nine-month period were €812.5m, up 21.3% on a reported basis.

Revenue increased across all regions. Emerging countries were the best performers with organic growth of 16.7% – three times faster than in developed markets.

Business lines were also up across the board, save for opinion and social research which showed a like-for-like decrease of 0.5%. Ipsos said: “This activity is now adversely affected by spending cuts in the public sector in the UK and everybody knows the situation will not be getting better in the coming 18 months.

“In 2011, Ipsos Public Affairs teams will make up for the expected decline of their activity in the UK by working more in other countries and with other clients.”