Rising dollar to pull global IT spends down 1.3 per cent in 2015: Gartner Research

NEW DELHI: A strong dollar is expected to pull global IT spending down by 1.3 per cent to $ 3.6 trillion this year, research firm Gartner today said.

"We forecast US-dollar-valued worldwide IT spending in 2015 to shrink by 1.3 per cent, down from 2.4 per cent growth forecast in last quarter's update," Gartner Research Vice President John-David Lovelock said.

Indian IT services firms like TCS, Infosys and HCL Technologies are already feeling the heat of cross-currency fluctuations.

HCL has already warned of a dip in its March quarter dollar earnings on account of the fluctuation.

Lovelock, however, added that "this is not a crash, even if it looks like one".

"The recent rapid rise in the value of the US dollar against most currencies has put a currency shock into the global IT market," he said.

Talking out the impact of exchange rate movements, the corresponding constant-currency growth figure is 3.1 per cent, only off 0.6 per cent from last quarter's update.

"However, this illusion masks a bigger issue that has real implications. Every product or service that has a US dollar-based component must have those costs covered at the lower exchange rate. The simple implication is that there will be price rises," Lovelock said.

IT services spending is forecast to contract slightly to $ 942 billion in 2015, down from $ 948 billion in 2014.

The US dollar spending on devices (including PCs, ultramobiles, mobile phones, tablets and printers) for 2015 is forecast to decline 1.2 per cent to $ 685 billion, while data centre system spending is projected to reach $ 142 billion in 2015 (up just 0.4 per cent from 2014).

Spending in the enterprise software market is on pace to total $ 320 billion in 2015, a 2.3 per cent increase from 2014.

Growth in spending on telecom services is predicted to shrink by 2.6 per cent in 2015 to total $ 1.57 trillion.