April was good to WPP according to its chief executive. While speaking at the International Advertising Association conference in Moscow this week, Sir Martin Sorrell said, “We’ve just seen what we call our flash numbers for April, which did show that change from what we saw in March, so we are starting to see for the first time growth in our business on a worldwide basis.”

His statement comes just two weeks after the world’s largest ad holding company (by sales) upped its full-year revenue forecast from flat to 2 percent. According to Campaign, WPP’s “growth” marks the first time the advertising business has seen an increase on a worldwide basis since the economic downturn hit at the end of 2008. Guess WPP wasn’t just taking the piss when it claimed, “2010 should be a more stable year (famous last words!)” in its recent earnings report.

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