A fifth of clientside respondents and one in three agency researchers are expecting an upturn in budgets. The average prediction is for an 11% rise. Qualitative and web-based methods are expected to benefit from any upturn, as is the IT/Telecoms sector.

However, the same number of clientside researchers also predict a decrease, although that figure is half of what it was in the last wave of the survey, which was carried out in December 2002 and early January 2003.

The survey also reported a small rise from 15% to 18% in the number of researchers who saw budgets go up and a decrease of 7% to 30% who experienced a decline in budgets in the second and third quarters of 2003.

Full-service agency, RSM conducted fieldwork for the study between mid-September and November 2003. There were 264 supply-side and 51 clientside respondents.