Most of us hardly need to be told we’re in a virtual advertising recession anymore. But the GroupM ad group in Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP is rubbing salt in the wounds anyway - it says UK ad expenditure will be down 11 percent through 2009. That’s worse than Carat’s forecast last week of a 7.1 percent decline.

Media Week says GroupM will this week issue a report in which it drastically revises down its December forecast of a 5.6 year-on-year percent fall. A poor showing as the economy worsened in the fourth quarter of the year saw 2008 UK ad spend fall 5.5 percent. Carat said UK advertising will stabilise in 2010: “In an environment where clients are focusing on the value they can get from their media spend, they want proven and accountable communications. This could be one reason for the relative resilience we are seeing in TV and online.”