Growth in U.S. IT spending is expected to rebound in the fourth quarter of 2009, and 2010 is on track to bring a revival of IT buying in other markets as well, according to an updated forecast by Forrester Research.
Global spending on IT services by businesses and governments in 2009 are projected to decline by 10.6 percent, compared with a 3 percent decrease previously projected at the beginning of the year by Forrester.
Andrew Bartels
IT spending in the U.S. is projected to decline 5.1 percent this year, compared with a 3.1 percent decrease previously forecast. Forrester says new data about large declines in business technology investment during the first quarter prompted it to update its outlook on technology spending.
“While Q1 2009 saw a scary drop in purchases in the US tech market, ironically that is good news for the long run and we expect to see a stronger rebound sooner,” said Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst.
“The big drops are not precursors to further declines; rather, we think they are evidence of a temporary pause in US tech purchases, which we expect to start recovering in Q4 as businesses realize that they overreacted in the first quarter.” He added, “We also expect that tech markets in Europe and Asia will start to recover in the first half of 2010.”
Looking at the 2009 global IT spending outlook by sector, Forrester anticipates lower investment than previously expected across all categories. Purchases of computer equipment is projected to be down 13.4 percent, communications equipment buying will drop 12.4 percent, software spending will dip 8.2 percent, and purchases of IT services will be 8.6 percent lower.
