NOP World Technology Confidence Barometer has shown the overall increase in IT investment in 2004 by companies will be 5.3%, according to a survey of 1,500 IT decision makers in Germany, France the UK and the US. Despite signs that the global tech sector is improving, this survey compares unfavourably with the results of last year’s Technology Confidence Barometer, when IT budgets were forecast to rise 5.9% in the US and 6.8% in Europe. This year a 6% rise was predicted in the US, with 5.8% predicted for Germany, the most optimistic of the three European nations in the study. A meagre 2.6% figure was produced for France, while the UK held the middle ground with 4.7%.