World's IT spending to plummet by 10 per cent

Global spending on IT could drop by 10 per cent this year, according to analysts.

The figure, from Forrester, is a drastic increase to the researcher's earlier prediction that worldwide IT spending in 2009 would fall by around three per cent year-on-year.

European IT expenditure is set to fall by eight per cent this year, according to Forrester.

The plummeting spend will be felt across all areas of tech, with hardware suffering the most - equipment purchases will be down 13.5 per cent year-on-year - while outsourcing will be comparatively better off with a 8.6 per cent fall.

Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research VP and principal analyst, said the first signs of a market revival will be seen later this year.

"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.

"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 realise that they overreacted in the first quarter," he said in a statement.

European and Asian markets will rebound in the first half of next year, Bartels predicted.