Tech industry ready to spend, spend, spend

An upbeat report from Forrester suggests that 2010 will see a significant recovery in the level of spending in the tech industry.

US spending is set to grow by 6.6 percent this year to $568 billion and worldwide IT spend will grow by 8.1 percent to stand at over $1.6 trillion.

The biggest growth areas will be in software and computer hardware.

Andrew Bartels, Forrester VP and principal analyst said that the tech downturn of 2008 and 2009 is “definitely over”. He said: “All the pieces are in place for a 2010 tech spending rebound. In the US… technology spending [will grow] at more than twice the rate of  gross domestic product this year.”

Europe, he thinks, will be the strongest performing region, with tech buys rising by 11.2 percent, helped by the decline of the dolar. But the weakest market will be Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where spending will rise by only 2.4 percent.