India stands to gain further in the business process outsourcing sector as 29 per cent of American and European companies are expected to increase outsourcing to support their financial functions in the next 12-24 months, a PricewaterhouseCoopers study said on Friday.

The overseas companies will also increase spending by nearly 16 per cent in the process, the PwC study, based on interviews with 127 chief financial officers and managing directors of Europe-based and 151 US-based companies, has said.

While an additional 71 per cent of the European companies plan to opt for outsourcing in the next two years, 78 per cent share similar sentiments in the US.

The study shows that the feedback from both the United States and European executives are encouraging and positive.

Thirty-eight per cent of the European executives felt the outsourcing benefits to their companies have been better than their initial expectations, 46 per cent rate them as about at par, while only 8 per cent have termed them worse than expected.

Meanwhile, 20 per cent of the US executives have termed the benefits 'better than expected' with 61 per cent rating them at par and 10 per cent dismissing them as worse.

The survey, however, shows a marked difference in the financial functions these multinationals have planned to outsource.