IT Spending, Budgets to Remain Slow Growing, Gartner

(Reuters) – Global enterprise spending on information technology should increase 3.1 percent in 2011, industry tracker Gartner said on Monday, as it predicted "timid" growth over the next five years.

Gartner forecast IT spending to rise to $2.5 trillion in 2011 and climb to $2.8 trillion in 2014, a gain of only 12 percent over that period.

The research group said the next five years would "represent a period of timid and at times lackluster growth."

"Several key vertical industries, such as manufacturing and financial services, will not see IT budgets recover to pre-2008 levels before 2012 or 2013," Peter Sondergaard, head of research at Gartner, said in a statement. "Emerging economies continue to be the locomotive of enterprise IT spending, substantially outpacing developed economies."

Spending is on pace to rise 2.4 percent in 2010 to $2.4 trillion, Gartner said.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)