The economic crisis in the European monetary union, described yesterday by French prime minister Francois Fillon as the “worst crisis in its history”, has affected IT projects at around a third of organisations on both sides of the Atlantic.

A survey of chief information officers by Swiss bank UBS found that 38% of European CIOs, and 35% of US CIOs, have seen projects delayed, cancelled or having their budgets cut as a result of the Eurozone crisis.

On average, CIOs expect their IT spending to decline by 1.3% in the next 12 months – down from an expected 0.5% increase three months ago.

This was attributed to expected public sector cuts, as well as economic uncertainty in the Eurozone. Among public sector organisations, IT expenditure is expected to fall by 4.9% in the next year.

Large debts accumulated by European countries have devalued their government bonds, thereby dragging down the value of the Euro.

Speaking in Tokyo yesterday, French PM Fillon said that the Eurozone is now overcoming the crisis. “The crisis is not a crisis of the euro, it’s a crisis of sovereign debt, which we are now resolving,” he said.