UK IT not up to Euro scratch

Spain is beating the UK to the title of fastest-growing IT market in Europe.

According to the European Information Technology Observatory (Eito), tech and telecoms spending across the continent will increase 3.1 per cent over the course of this year, to €644bn. Meanwhile Spain's market will boom by 4.2 per cent and the UK will snap at its tail with 3.3 per cent.

Those standings won't last for very much longer, however. The Eito predicts France will take over the second place for growth, during next year, while the UK will fall to third with growth of 2.9 per cent.

A number of both internal and external factors have come together to give Euro tech a boost, Eito chair Bruno Lamborghini believes.

He said in a statement: "An overall positive business climate and improved general economic development together with new digital convergence technologies are favourable for ICT investment."

In European IT, software and services will both be performing strongly during this year and next year, with security software, systems infrastructure and professional services in demand. Hardware will suffer, with the market for both PCs and servers shrinking marginally.

Telecoms will see mobile voice growing at roughly the same pace that fixed voice is dwindling: around four per cent.