Forrester Predicts IT Spending Decline

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Global purchases of IT goods and services by businesses and governments will decline by 3 percent in 2009 to $1.66 trillion, according to a new forecast from Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR). The 2009 drop measured in US dollars is a distinct shift from 2008, when global IT purchases increased by 8 percent. The 2009 decline ends seven years of growth in global IT purchases; technology purchases fell by 6 percent in both 2001 and 2002.

Our forecast for 2009 rests on the assumptions that the economic recession in the US and other major economies will start to end in the second half of 2009,” said Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst. “For IT vendor strategists, the global IT market will be a gloomy one in 2009, with prospects of improvement in 2010. Unlike in past years, there are no significant growth markets to offset the weak ones.”

Forrester Research Inc.