IT spending remains a priority for European firms despite economic uncertainty, a new survey has found.

Data obtained by Gartner reveals that Europe IT budgets are still growing, even as the credit crunch bites.

The firm had expected to see a fall in budgets over the first quarter of 2008.

However, a poll of 1,011 chief information officers (CIOs) found that business confidence in IT remains strong.

Mark McDonald, an analyst at the firm said: "Overall, the majority of CIOs reported no change in their 2008 committed budget."

But, Mr McDonald added that this could be because IT budgets have already been cut in recent times.

"IT budgets are not the target rich environment for cost cutting they have been in the past," he stated.

European IT budgets are set to grow by 3.86 per cent in the coming year, he concluded.

Anyone who wishes to cut costs might want to consider IT outsourcing.

Last month, Wiltshire county council said it expects to save around GBP 9-11 million a year through IT outsourcing.

More than half of small businesses (53%) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support, London based Connect conducted the research in 2007.