European Projects Decline

According to a recently published IDC report discussed in an article at http://The article, European projects are forecast to decline 1.4% this year.
I commented "It is encouraging to see that IDC has revised its forecast to be less pessimistic.

In the current economic climate it is understandable that project approvals are harder to win, gate reviews are tougher and relative project priorities are revisited.

A trend I have seen discussed is that project selection is now weighted to favour low cost initiatives that can show value in shorter timeframes. This trend is likely to impact some large projects.

I am hoping that the drop in the number of projects is cushioned by an increase in the maturity of project management practices that are driving efficiencies. This will allow more projects to be executed with higher resource utilization levels."

What do you think?