After two years of declining sales and minimal growth, business in information and communication technology products and services is set ...
After two years of declining sales and minimal growth, business in information and communication technology products and services is set to expand again this year. ICT sales in the EU member states are expected to grow by 0.9 percent to 651 billion euros, according to a current study by the European IT Observatory (EITO).
While sales of IT hardware, services and software will increase by 2.1 percent to 364 billion euros, sales in telecommunications will fall by 0.6 percent to 287 billion euros. "The ICT market in Europe is recovering. Its slight growth is based mainly on a major increase in software investments relating to the digital transformation in many companies", explains EITO Managing Director Axel Pols. Causes for concern are the ICT markets in the EU's southern crisis nations: sales are falling by 3.5 percent in Greece, 2.1 percent in Italy and 2.0 percent in Portugal. "The financial and economic crisis has also had a noticeable effect on the high-tech sector in these countries, which is slowing overall growth in Europe", says Pols.
According to the EITO forecasts, global ICT sales are set to rise by 3.1 percent to 2.8 trillion euros. The telecommunications sector is experiencing above-average growth of 3.4 percent to 1.6 trillion euros, while the information technology sector is expanding slightly more slowly, growing by 2.8 percent to 1.2 trillion euros. India (plus 9.0 percent to 53 billion euros) is replacing China (plus 6.9 percent to 325 billion euros) as the fastest-growing ICT nation, followed by Brazil (plus 8.9 percent to 118 billion euros). The Russian ICT market is showing the weakest development in the EITO country comparison this year; it is expected to contract by approximately 6.1 percent to 41 billion euros. With sales increases of 2.8 percent to approximately 800 billion euros, the United States remains the largest ICT market by far.
Methodology: Market data are based on current research by the European IT Observatory (EITO) covering a total of 36 countries. EITO provides current data on global markets for information and communication technology. EITO (
www.eito.com) is a project by Bitkom Research GmbH in cooperation with IDC, GfK and ICT industry associations across Europe.
The new EITO international market report is available here:
https://www.eito.com/WebRoot/Store15/Shops/63182014/MediaGallery/Categories/Reports/EITO_2015_16_Definitions_and_Methodology.pdf