Technology spending will grow this year in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America, offsetting declines in Europe and North America, a Gartner survey of 2,335 chief investment officers found.

'On a global weighted-average basis, CIO IT budgets are anticipated to be essentially flat for 2012,' US-based research firm Gartner said on Wednesday.

Appetite for investment appeared strongest in Latin America, where IT budgets were set to rise 12.7 per cent, and in the Asia-Pacific region, where IT budgets will rise 3.4 per cent, the survey found. Investment will fall 0.6 per cent in North America and 0.7 per cent in Europe.

Gartner said larger organisations, or those with IT budgets of more than $500 million, were continuing to cut expenditure.

It surveyed CIOs from 37 industries and 45 countries, who oversee a total IT budget of $321 billion. – Reuters