Gartner: Eurozone crisis will bash IT spending

Ahoy, recession, we meet again

Enterprise IT spending will stagger and fall this year but may back on one leg in 2012 despite swingeing public sector cuts and the looming Eurozone financial catastrophe.

This is according to Gartner, which kicked off its annual Symposium and IT Expo with more talk of a double-dip recession.

“The second recession is about to hit and CIOs must decide which way to turn,” said Peter Sondergaard, senior veep and chief bean counter at Gartner.

“The continued global economic uncertainty and the eurozone crisis will impact your IT budget in 2012, and your business will face difficult budgetary questions," he added.

Of course the impact on IT budgets will depend on geographic location, industry sector and the relative health of employer.

With Greece, Italy and Spain standing on the brink of bankruptcy, IT procurement in Western Europe – roughly 80 per cent of EMEA's total spend – will contract 1.8 per cent in euros this year and recover to grow 1.5 per cent next year.

The government vertical will make up 20 per cent of the IT market this year, though spending is expected to drop nearly five per cent and a recovery to 2010 levels is not forecast until 2015. ®