Over the next 18 months, UK marketing budgets will face their sharpest slowdown since the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, according to a survey widely regarded as a confidence barometer for the broader economy as well as the advertising industry.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising's Bellwether Report, released today, reports that budgets for the current year have been "revised down" for the third quarter in succession. The rate of decline "was gathering to a pace not seen since the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks".