Global IT spending will exhibit modest growth in 2010, according to a Gartner report.
Worldwide IT spending is predicted to reach $3.4 trillion this year, a boost of 4.6% on 2009 figures. This is in stark contrast to last year, when spending tumbled 4.6% from 2008 spending levels. Biggest growth will be in IT services at 5.6%, followed by software at 4.9% and telecoms at 4.6%, but all sectors are expected to grow in 2010.
Gartner has revised its predictions for IT spending from last quarter when it forecast it would take until 2011 to recover to 2008 spending levels. The research firm cautioned, however, that much of this rise could be attributed to poor performance of the dollar compared to last year.
Emerging markets were expected to recover faster, with spending forecast to rise 9.3% in Latin America, 7.7% in the Middle East and Africa and 7% in Asia/Pacific. Western Europe, the US and Japan would show more modest increases of 5.2%, 2.5% and 1.8% respectively.
These projected spending figures are far more bullish than figures published earlier this week in Gartner’s global survey of 1,586 global CIOs, where a global average increase of 1.3% over 2009 spending was predicted. Gartner attributed the differences to the inclusion of consumer as well as enterprise spending and the effect of exchange rates.
While recovery would be slow at first, momentum will build over the next 12 to 18 months as consumer confidence grows, lines of credit are opened and pent-up demand for technology releases CIOs’ purse strings.
