The European IT Observatory (EITO) said that, 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 by 0.9% to €651 billion. Sales of IT hardware, services and software will increase by 2.1% to €364 billion, but sales in telecommunications will fall by 0.6% to €287 billion. In the south of Europe, there are challenges, with sales falling by 3.5% in Greece, 2.1% in Italy and 2.0% in Portugal.
Globally, EITO expects ICT sales to rise by 3.1% to €2.8 trillion. IT will grow by 2.8% to €1.2 trillion while telecommunications is growing to €1.6 trillion and will rise by 3.4%. India (plus 9.0% to €53 billion) is replacing China (+6.9% to €325 billion) as the fastest-growing ICT nation, followed by Brazil (+8.9% to €118 billion). 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% to €41 billion. With sales increases of 2.8% to approximately €800 billion, the US remains the largest ICT market by far.
