Worldwide IT spending will end up falling by around 7.3 percent year on year to USD 3.5 trillion in 2020 due to the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest report from Gartner. The prediction is a slight improvement on the USD 3.4 trillion estimate reported in May, with the researcher saying it now expects a "swoop" recovery in comparison to the global economy's "swoosh" recovery. "Overall IT spending is still expected to sharply decline in 2020 but will recover in a faster and smoother manner than the economy," said Gartner in a statement.
All major IT segments are set to experience heavy revenue falls, with devices the hardest hit with a spending reduction of 16.1 percent due to cost containment, followed by a 10.3 percent decline in data centre investments. Spending on IT services is expected to fall 6.8 percent, with enterprise software (-5.3%) and communications services (-3.3%) the least affected.
According to the report, many enterprises will soon be able to resume spending on IT thanks to the easing of lockdown restrictions but the pause and restart will push growth out of 2020 and into 2021.
