IT budgets 'to remain steady'

The continuing credit crunch has not impacted on global IT budgets, recent research has revealed.

Statistics compiled by IT consultants, Gartner, have shown that growth in the industry has remained at 3.3 per cent this past year.

Furthermore, 15 per cent of IT chief information officers state they intend to increase their budgets. Some 62 per cent will maintain the same budget levels and 23 per cent plan to reduce them.

Of the 23 per cent lowering their budget, nearly three quarters said reduction would amount to only ten per cent.

Mark McDonald, from Gartner, said: "This indicates that IT budgets are not the 'target rich' environment for cost cutting they have been in the past."

The research shows the IT industry is remaining strong in light of recent surveys from the Confederation of British Industry and PricewaterhouseCoopers which revealed banks were reducing IT investment because of the credit crisis.