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Spending on IT across Australia and New Zealand is set to grow at a compounded rate of 2.5 per cent annually from now to 2025, with all sectors experiencing bumper growth except consumer.
According to research firm IDC, the two countries will spend US$84 billion in total this year on information and communication technologies (ICT) with only consumer showing a decline, falling by 1 per cent.
The firm said this reflected the recent trend towards a slower upgrade cycle of smartphones as consumers hold onto them for longer.
Meanwhile, financial and distribution services saw the highest growth, at 4.6 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively, while manufacturing experienced 4.1 per cent growth.
At the lower end, public sector witnessed 3.2 per cent growth while infrastructure saw 2.8 per cent.
"Government stimulus initiatives measures and A/NZ businesses prior investment in digital transformation played a key role in mitigating against the worst impact of the pandemic on business investment activity," IDC said.
New business models driven by the pandemic, hybrid workplaces and online learning fueled the growth in hardware, software and IT services revenue, the analyst firm claimed.
"Governments across the region have continued to increase tech budgets to enhance crisis response capability, improve operational efficiency, provide effective services to citizens as the pandemic hit and, going forward, to grow the digital economy ecosystem," IDC's analysts noted.
Cloud-based infrastructure and modernisation of application platforms are set to form the bulk of IT spending over the next five years, IDC added.
This week, fellow analyst firm Gartner also set out high growth hopes for the Australian and New Zealand governments IT spending.
By 2022, the former’s expected to grow 8.8 per cent year-on-year to A$15.5 billion — outpacing the global growth rate average of 6.5 per cent, to US$557.3 billion.
New Zealand’s on the other hand is set to grow 7.9 per cent year-on-year to NZ$2.6 billion.
