Analyst firm Gartner has revised its forecast for worldwide IT spending in 2012. Government austerity measures mean that IT spending will increase by 2.5% this year, reaching a total of $3.7 trillion. The new prediction is well down from the original 3.7% increase that Gartner previously predicted.

According to Gartner, IT spending in the government sector is expected to "contract moderately" on a global basis in 2012 and 2013, driven by Eurozone austerity measures. US government spending is expected to be "flat" in 2012 before contracting in 2013.

In the SME market, which represents around a quarter of the enterprise IT market, spending is forecast to reach $874 billion in 2012 and will grow to $1 trillion by 2016. Throughout the forecast period, Gartner said midsized business IT spending will beat other sectors in each of the next five years, driven by progress in spending on enterprise software.

Gartner analyst Richard Gordon said: "Despite ongoing concerns about the global economic recovery – most notably around the resolution of eurozone sovereign-debt problems, worries about the potential for China's real estate 'bubble' to spill over and affect the rest of the economy, and rising oil prices – early signs in 2012 suggest that the global economic outlook has brightened a little."