Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP has said its profits in the first quarter are well ahead of the same period last year, as the UK bucked a weak market to help fuel a 2.1% growth in total revenues to £2.5bn.

WPP said it is running ahead of its own budgets for the first quarter, although City analysts had been hoping for slightly stronger overall revenue growth, with a particularly pleasing performance in the UK which went against the market trend, increasing its revenues by 3.7% to £318m.

The performance of the UK and western continental Europe, which saw revenues contract by just 0.8% to £592m, was pleasing given the tough market conditions.

Last week, rival Publicis Groupe reported a first-quarter revenue falls of more than 6% in its European and UK operations.

The key North American market, which accounts for 35% of WPP's total revenues, shrank 1% in the first quarter to £886m.

As usual, the fast-growing markets, including Latin America and Asia Pacific, grew strongest at 7.8% to £736m.

Despite the slightly soft first quarter, WPP reiterated that it expects revenue growth for the full year to be about 3%.

WPP said that it has won $1.5bn (£970m) worth of new business from clients in the first quarter, down from $1.85bn in the same quarter last year.

Sorrell said that "grey swans" – such as the Eurozone crisis and the US deficit – continue to make clients "reluctant to take further risks, despite stronger balance sheets".

WPP said its advertising and media buying operation – the most important part of its business, accounting for 41% of total group revenues – grew strongly at 3.9% to £1.03bn in the first quarter. Within this, the media buying business increasing its revenues by an impressive 7.4% in the first quarter.

The only blight was the performance of WPP's public relations and public affairs operations, which saw revenue shrink 4.1% in the first quarter to £221m. The company said business was "particularly difficult" in North America, western continental Europe and Asia Pacific, but stronger in the UK and Latin America.

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