Prague - 31 Jan 2017: According to the Worldwide Semiannual IT Spending Guide: Industry and Company Size published by International Data Corporation (IDC), overall IT market spending is forecast to grow in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), with the government and finance sectors showing the greatest year-on-year spending increase.

IDC forecasts that IT spending (hardware, software, and services combined) in the CEE region will reach $62.58 billion in 2017. By 2020, it is expected to exceed $70.58 billion.

In the public sector, growth is being driven by digital transformation projects such as egovernment and smart cities solutions. Banks and financial firms are also investing in large-scale IT projects as they transform their business models to meet the expectations of consumers in the digital environment.

The telecommunications sector is expected to maintain the leading share of spending in 2017, at $8.67 billion, followed by finance ($7.12 billion), manufacturing ($6.78 billion), and government ($5.55 billion). IDC predicts that retail will be the fastest evolving sector, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4% through 2020.

Hardware's domination of total IT spending is expected to continue, with the segment forecast to account for nearly 60% of the market in 2017. Most hardware spending will be due to consumers purchases of mobile technologies. Hardware infrastructure spending for storage or enterprise networks is forecast to grow steadily, with the telecommunications industry acting as a main driver.

In the commercial segment business sector (all businesses), IT services are expected to see spending growth of nearly 19% through 2020, which is nearly on a par with hardware spending. The most-demanded IT services will be implementation and support, with financial institutions expected to spend the most on total IT services.

Although most software spending will be on applications, system infrastructure software is expected to grow the fastest, at a CAGR of 5.08%. One-third of total software spending is forecast to be contributed by the manufacturing sector over the coming years.

Business services represent a marginal fraction of total IT spending, at 5-6%, and are mainly sought by entities in the finance, public sector, and telecommunications verticals. However, IDC sees increased healthcare industry spending in business services, with a CAGR of 8% forecast through 2020.

Large businesses (more than 500 employees) are expected to account for more than 60% of total IT spending in 2017. Medium-sized businesses (100-499 employees) will be responsible for around 20% of spending, while spending by small businesses will be less than 14%. Although small-office IT spending is currently rather limited, at around 4% of the total, IDC expects vigorous growth of 18.6% in this sector through 2020. Consumer spending is forecast to remain flat, posting a CAGR of less than 1% through 2020.