The recent fall in oil prices will push up business and consumer IT spending, according to Canalys.
The research firm expects that the low price of Brent crude oil, will provide a short-term economic stimulus that will be funnelled into new spending on IT.
Canalys questioned the IMF’s decision to reduce its global GDP forecast for the year from 3.8% to 3.5%, suggesting the lower oil price would increase the rate by an additional 0.5% to 0.7%.
Canalys has accordingly raised its 2015 growth forecasts for several technology sectors, including smart phones (16%), PCs (4%), x86 servers (4%), enterprise networking (5%), IT security (7%) and unified communications (4%).
Currently under $50 a barrel, oil prices have plummeted more than 50% since June 2014, with mixed impacts on the global economy. While importers in the West are realising savings, Russia, one of the world’s largest producers of crude oil, is seeing huge inflation.
"Price falls translate into a transfer of wealth from producers to importers," said Canalys Principal Analyst Matthew Ball. "Oil producers received approximately $340 billion less in the second half of 2014 compared with the first half of the year, based on average monthly production and prices."
"The difference will be even more significant if prices remain at US$50 per barrel and production continues at the same level for the next six months. If this scenario happens, producers will receive almost $1 trillion less compared with the first half of 2014."
