Global IT spending forecast to grow by 2.7% in 2017: Gartner

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.5 trillion in 2017, a 2.7% increase from 2016. However, this growth rate is down from earlier projections of 3%, according to Gartner report. This comes after a 0.6% decline in growth in 2016.

The over IT spending in 2017 is expected to grow to $3.5 trillion from $3.37 trillion in 2016. IT spending is expected to further grow by 2.6% in 2018 to $3.55 trillion.

Enterprise software is going to be the biggest driver of growth of worldwide IT spending. It is expected to grow by 6.8% in 2017 to $355 billion. In 2016 it had posted a 5.9% growth at $333 billion.

It will be followed by spends in IT services which is expected to grow by 4.2% to $938 bullion from $899 billion in 2016.

Communication services is expected to see a come back in growth at 1.7% to $1.4 trillion. In 2016 it had posted a 1% decline in growth with spends at $1.3 trillion.

"2017 was poised to be a rebound year in IT spending. Some major trends have converged, including cloud, blockchain, digital business and artificial intelligence. Normally, this would have pushed IT spending much higher than 2.7% growth," said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. "However, some of the political uncertainty in global markets has fostered a wait-and-see approach causing many enterprises to forestall IT investments."

Worldwide devices spending (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) is projected to remain flat in 2017 at $589 billion. A replacement cycle in the PC market and strong pricing and functionality of premium ultramobiles will help drive growth in 2018. Emerging markets will drive the replacement cycle for mobile phones as smartphones in these markets are used as a main computing device and replaced more regularly than in mature markets.