WPP’s Martin Sorrell: I remain an unavowed China bull
Despite China's growth rate growing at its slowest pace in 24 years, Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of advertising giant WPP told CNBC that he remained bullish on China.
"There's a lot of China bashing going on, particularly when the GDP is only growing by 7.4 percent," Sorrell told CNBC at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, but "it's the delta, the increment that counts."
On Tuesday, the country said its economy grew at 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, slightly below the government's 7.5 percent growth target. Nonetheless, Sorrell pointed out that the country was still worth $9 trillion.
He has also praised the anti-corruption drive launched by President Xi Jinping, who came to power in late 2012. "I think management of the corruption issue by the new administration has been very strong. It was always going to take them two years to get things sorted out – I think it's been a good start," he said.
Worried about the BRICs
Sorrell was less bullish about the outlook for some of the other BRIC economies – Brazil, Russia and India -- however.
"Brazil is languishing" following Dilma Rousseff's re-election in October he said, adding that he hopes the new Finance Minister Joaquim Levy will be "strong" and said "many are now more bullish, looking for a turn."
But Russia, sinking under the weight of international sanctions following Moscow's military incursions into Ukraine, plummeting oil prices, a shrinking economy and a currency crisis, is "extremely challenged and remain challenged," he said.
The International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecast on Monday, by 0.3 percent to 3.5 percent for 2015. Economists are predicting the U.S. Federal Reserve will start hiking rates sometime in the middle of this year.
"We have a slow growth world….what I do worry about is when (interest rates) in America start to climb, and the rest of the world starts to climb, and the effect that will have on" the global economy, said Sorrell.