The European recovery has been led by the U.K. and Germany after a "dire" few years, top British businessman Martin Sorrell told CNBC Monday.
The CEO of global advertising giant WPP said he expected Europe's economy to continue to improve over the next few years.
"We've seen certainly an improvement after what has been a pretty dire four or five years post-Lehman, in southern Europe and indeed continental Europe," Sorrell told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe."
Read MoreThe end of the siesta?
"The U.K. has led the way, Germany has then followed, then we've seen Spain. We're now seeing Italy and maybe France will pick up eventually as well," he added.
The euro zone economy beat expectations in the fourth quarter of 2014, growing by 0.3 percent on the previous three months, according to official figures released by Eurostat in February. The European Union economy as a whole – which includes the U.K. – expanded by 0.4 percent over the period.