A forecast for worldwide 2012 IT spending growth has been revised from 2.5% to 3% by research company Gartner.

Gartner yesterday unveiled its second quarter report, saying that total spending in the sector could reach $3.6 trillion this year.

Spending on public cloud services is projected to drive much of this growth, as the market is expected by Gartner to increase from $91 billion in 2011 to $109 billion in 2012.

Meanwhile, Gartner says that IT services spending could increase to 2.3% this year to $864 billion this year. The rising demand for analytics is one factor that is keeping this segment expanding, the research company said.

But the global telecommunications industry is set to experience the most sluggish growth in 2012 within the IT sector. Although telecommunications is projected to make up the bulk of IT spending in 2012 at $1.7 trillion, it would only have grown 1.4% from last year.

The fall in voice revenues worldwide is proving for tough times for telcos. However, strong demand for internet services, particularly in emerging economies, and connected devices, such as tablets and smartphones, are factors keeping global telco growth afloat, says Gartner.

The euro-zone crisis, a weak US recovery and a slowdown in China are resulting in a cautious short-term outlook for the IT industry this year.

“Economic outlooks remain extremely uncertain right now,” says Richard Gordon of Gartner.

“Having said that a lot of the volatility has gone away, so there is a kind of an eery stability out there.

“We’re not really making much change for the outlook for IT spend, we’re kind of holding a steady pattern,” he added.

Last year, IT spending worldwide hit 7.9%.

Africa as an IT spending juggernaut?

One continent that appears to be bucking the global slowdown trend in IT spending has been Africa.

According to a Gartner survey that interviewed CIOs across Africa and the Middle East earlier this year, results showed that respondents expected the African IT market to grow by 11% in 2012.

Strong economic growth in Africa is to boost IT spending on the continent, said Mark McDonald, group VP and head of research at Gartner executive programs, earlier this year.

Economists at the World Bank expect sub-Saharan Africa's gross domestic product to expand by over 5% this year, while the Euro Zone faces threats of a recession.

“Economic conditions in the Middle East and Africa are different from North America and Western Europe,” McDonald said.

“Firms in the African and Middle East regions are seeing investment driven by economic development... much of which is supported by demand for natural resources,” he said.