Management Toolkit

Analysts downgrade 2008 global IT outlook

Suzanne Tindal ZDNet Australia

Published: 12 Feb 2008 12:53 GMT

The global outlook for 2008 IT purchasing could be grimmer than previously believed due to the US economic difficulties.

Analyst house Forrester Research has downgraded its 2008 forecast for global IT purchasing, projecting that US spending on IT goods and services will grow 2.8 percent year-on-year, down from its previous forecast of 4.6 percent; while global purchases of IT goods and services will grow six percent, down from the previous forecast of nine percent.

Forrester Research's figures fall broadly in line with those of fellow analyst house Gartner, whose most recent global IT spending growth forecast is also around six percent.

Read this

The shape of tech spending in 2008

Environmentally and economically sustainable tech will continue to be an increasingly important theme this year

The US financial situation is the cause for the downgrade. "While it is by no means certain that the US economy will in fact experience a recession, the risks of one are high enough to justify a more conservative outlook for the IT market," Forrester Research vice president Andrew Bartels said in a statement.

The global market will be affected by any downturn in its largest regional market for IT goods and services, he continued, although the size of that market is getting ever smaller — with the US falling from 40 percent of all global IT purchasing in 2003 to a forecast 33 percent in 2008, Forrester said.

All IT sectors were not born equal, the Forrester forecast reports, saying that software, consulting and outsourcing will outperform hardware and communications equipment purchases.