Asia Pacific showed the best revenue growth (up 4.5% compared with 2015 ) with Europe, Middle East and Africa reporting a 2.6% fall. Overall the company said the most developed markets have grown by 2.8% (at constant scope and exchange rates), buoyed by the US, Japan and Australia, among others.

Emerging markets have recovered after the 2015 downturns in markets such as Russia and Brazil, growing on average 4.4% in H1 2016.

Among its businesses, marketing research achieved organic growth of 4%, as did opinion & social research, with client and employee relationship management going up 7%.  

The company said that Ipsos Connect, which since 2015 has handled advertising content, digital and traditional media channels related research, had a difficult start in its first year, with a 6.5% fall in business. However it said, 2016 will see stabilisation and in the first half its business is almost stable with organic growth of -1%, the low point of the expected change.

In terms of looking forward Ipsos cited three markets as “symbols of a paradoxical time that presents immense challenges and extraordinary opportunities” – China, Brazil and the UK.

It said China seems to manage its progress from one economic model to another; Brazil will have to face the challenge of the Olympic Games which will hopefully be a success; and the UK will leave the EU “but be more European than ever” with “late night negotiations in Brussels once again on the agenda”.

The report said: “There is no way to assert that all will go well, everywhere, all the time. There is however no reason for us to describe a world only in black terms, even if it has rarely been so anxiety-provoking, uncertain, dispersed even divided by emotions often understandable but sometimes dangerous.

"This is the paradox of a civilisation where information which is not always right and relevant is nevertheless, immediate, shared and omnipresent.”