Global advertising spending will suffer as economic uncertainty undermines consumer confidence, according to ZenithOptimedia, which slashed its growth forecasts for 2008 and 2009.

The media buyer owned by France’s Publicis predicted global advertising growth would rise at 4.3 per cent in 2008, down from an earlier projection of 6.6 per cent made in June. Global advertising spending in 2009 is expected to grow 4 per cent from an earlier forecast of 6 per cent.