The world's business elite were taken by surprise by the Brexit vote and Donald Trump's election victory because they are in a Davos "bubble" and "out of touch", the chief executive of the world's largest advertising agency told CNBC on Tuesday.
Sir Martin Sorrell, the boss of WPP (London Stock Exchange: WPP-GB), had expected the U.K. to remain in the European Union and also called Hillary Clinton to win the U.S. election.
But Sorrell admitted that his predictions were "a little bit wanting" and offered his thoughts on why the world, particularly the business community, got them wrong.
"We all talk to one another in this bubble here in Davos, echo chamber in London, and it's true of the East Coast, West Coast liberals," Sorrell told CNBC in a TV interview at the World Economic Forum, adding that many people attending the event are "clearly out of touch."
"In terms of their businesses, in terms of their regulation,in terms of intervention, I think most industries favored a more Republican route … so it's a question about why were the pollsters wrong. Because nobody really told them the truth."
Sorrell said he expects Trump's policies of infrastructure spending, tax reduction, and repatriation of cash overseas to be good for the U.S. economy in the next two-to-three years. But the WPP boss warned about the low growth environment.
"You're in a world of uncertainty, low growth, very little pricing power, because there's very little inflation … and that eventually will bring a problem prior to the next presidential election," Sorrell told CNBC.
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