Global IT spending growth forecast slashed

Gartner lowers its projections for 2010

On the up: Gartner predicts enterprise IT spend will grow by 2.9 per cent this year

Market watcher Gartner has predicted that enterprise IT spend will grow by nearly three per cent worldwide in 2010.

But the growth rate is set to fall more than a point short of the forecast it made less than three months ago.

According to the analyst's predictions, IT spend will exceed $2.4tn this year, up from $2.3tn in 2009; growth within the national and international government sector will act as a driving force.

The sector was highlighted by Gartner as having the strongest projected growth rate during 2010, with IT spend expected to grow by four per cent this year.

Kenneth Brant, research director at Gartner, said: “The enterprise IT market will return to growth in 2010, but we now expect it will grow by only 2.9 per cent globally, down from 4.1 per cent growth we had forecast earlier this year.”

The analyst has advised service providers to target high-growth industry segments until 2014 to ensure they are best placed to trap the IT spend available.

“We are advising technology providers to prepare business plans for 2011 on the basis of our most likely scenario for enterprise IT spending growth – 3.5 per cent,” added Brant.

However, he also said that service providers should develop contingency plans should its 2011 growth predictions fail to become reality.

"[Service providers] should act now to develop contingencies to mitigate the risk of zero growth in 2011, a scenario that carries a lower probability but a much higher potential,” he added.

"The bottom line is that technology providers need to be prepared for the worst case, where commercial IT markets stagnate and governments transition to fiscal austerity programmes.”