UK ad spending to tumble while recovery seen in Latin America -Zenith

June 19 (Reuters) - Spending on advertising in Britain is expected to decline sharply this year weighed by a slowing economy, rising inflation and political uncertainty, a leading forecaster said on Monday.

Zenith, owned by France's Publicis (Paris: FR0000130577 - news) , forecasted a 0.9 percent growth in UK advertising spending in 2017, down from 9.6 percent growth last year.

It cited a slowing economy, rising inflation, political uncertainty following a snap general election and negotiations Britain now faces after its vote late June to leave the European Union.

Global advertising expenditure is expected to grow by 4.2 percent in 2017, down from 4.8 percent in 2016.

However, underlying growth will strengthen from 3.6 percent in 2016 to 5.4 percent in 2017 as year-ago results benefitted from non-annual events such the U.S. presidential elections, Rio Olympics and Euro Cup 2016, it said.

The slowdown in Britain, a persistent outperformer in ad spending in Western Europe, will drag regional spending growth down to 2 percent in 2017 from 4.6 percent last year.

WPP (Frankfurt: A1J2BZ - news) , world's largest advertising group, cut its 2017 sales forecasts in March and said clients were seeking to drive down costs.

In other regions, economic recovery in Brazil and Argentina will help drive 4.1 percent growth in Latin America this year after a 0.2 percent contraction last year, it said.

The United States, the world's largest economy, will be the leading contributor of new ad dollars to the global market over the next three years and China will rank second, it said.

(Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely)