UK leads Europe in IT growth
Software and services growth will shine
The UK is the fastest growing IT market in Western Europe, with 4.2 per cent growth expected this year, according to a report by the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO).
Last year growth in the UK stood at 3.5 per cent, however the EITO's latest report shows that for 2006 the overall IT market growth in Europe is expected to slow - with 3.2 per cent expected this year, compared to 3.6 per cent in 2005.
Charles Ward, chief operations officer at IT trade body Intellect, said: " The headline level of growth is encouraging but masks increasing turbulence in the market with some sub-sectors such as security, mobile applications, content management and storage experiencing huge growth. The UK continues to be a fertile market for innovative solutions and business models."
The EITO's report forecasts above average growth rates for the UK IT industry this year, with 6.1 per cent growth expected in software and 5.1 per cent growth expected for IT services.
This is expected to be offset by more modest growth rates in IT hardware at 3.9 per cent and 3.6 per cent for telecoms. The UK will continue to maintain the status quo though, according to the report.
"Services growth is driven by the continuing adoption of outsourcing and recent events have highlighted the importance of business continuity," added Ward.