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Gartner has warned that worldwide spending on IT is on course to drop by six per cent this year, to $3.2tn.
The market research company had previously projected a drop of 3.8 per cent in March. It said that continued weak demand and changes in the currency markets had resulted in the change.
According to Gartner, all four major segments would experience a decline. Computing hardware is predicted to be the worst hit, with a decline of 16.9 per cent forecast. IT services are expected to fall 5.6 per cent, telecoms by 4.6 per cent, and software by 1.6 per cent.
"While the global economic downturn shows signs of easing, this year IT budgets are still being cut and consumers will need a lot more persuading before they can feel confident enough to loosen their purse strings," said research vice president and head of global forecasting, Richard Gordon.
"The forecast decline in spending growth for the hardware and software segments in 2009 has almost stabilized, and only minor downward revisions have been made to these forecasts this quarter," he continued.
"However, the full impact of the global recession on the IT services and telecommunications sectors is still emerging, and forecast growth in these areas has been further reduced significantly. Moreover, the rise in the value of the U.S. dollar against most currencies in recent months will have a material downward impact on 2009 IT spending growth, which by convention we report based on U.S. dollars."
