STAMFORD, CT — Worldwide vertical market IT spending is projected
to rise 0.5% year-over-year to $2.7 trillion in 2009, according to
Gartner, Inc. Utilities, healthcare and government are
expected to be the strongest-growing segments of the market .
The firm blames the worldwide economic slowdown for the tepid growth. Says John-David Lovelock, research vice president for Gartner, “Internal
spending, hardware and system integration in the financial sector were
particularly hard-hit in 2008 and will continue suffering through 2009.”
The utilities industry is forecast to grow the most in 2009 - 2.9%. Smart grids and energy supplies are viewed as national
and strategic issues in many countries, and spending on IT is a
necessity. The healthcare industry is expected to post the
second-highest increase, at 2.2%. Countries in
which healthcare is primarily publicly funded will be sheltered from
the worst of the economic turmoil, and governments tend to keep
healthcare funding at least stable during the worst economic conditions, Gartner says.
Uncertainty about the depth and duration of the economic slowdown
dominated the banking and investment sector in the last quarter of
2008. This uncertainty led to declines and postponements in IT spending
at many large financial services companies, and this is expected to
continue in 2009 as worldwide financial services IT spending is
forecast to decline 0.7%. The US financial
services sector is forecast to be hardest hit, however, major IT
investments in less-affected countries such as Canada and Mexico and
regions such as the Middle East and Africa will minimize the decline in
the sector worldwide.