Cambridge, Mass. - Global purchases of IT goods and services by businesses and governments will decline by 3% in 2009 to $1.66 trillion, according to a new forecast from Cambridge-based Forrester Research.

The drop, measured in US dollars, is a shift from 2008, when global IT purchases increased by 8%.

The 2009 decline ends seven years of growth in global IT purchases.

"Our forecast for 2009 rests on the assumptions that the economic recession in the US and other major economies will start to end in the second half of 2009," said Andrew Bartels, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.

"For IT vendor strategists, the global IT market will be a gloomy one in 2009, with prospects of improvement in 2010. Unlike in past years, there are no significant growth markets to offset the weak ones."

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