The chairman and chief executive of French advertising giant Publicis, said he expects “a difficult fourth quarter ... and a very difficult year 2009" Reuters reported him telling La Tribune Thursday.

Maurice Levy pointed out that the firm would be keeping that thought in mind when establishing its budgets for the coming year. He added that Publicis had a budget of €2 billion (US$2.7 billion), which he termed as “superior to our needs.”

Reuters reported that Publicis-owned media services company ZenithOptimedia recently published a report on global advertising trends in 2008 that forecast that ad expenditure would be less than expected in 2008.