IT Spending in Croatia To Grow by 4.8%/Year Through 2013, Seen at 6.4 Bln Kuna (881.6 Mln Euro) in 2009 - IDC

The survey, Aid to Recovery: The Economic Impact of IT, Software, and the Microsoft Ecosystem on the Global Economy, covers 52 countries worldwide.

IT-related activities will generate 2.4 billion kuna in taxes in 2009. Over the next four years that means more than 1.5 billion kuna in aggregate net new taxes, the survey said.

That spending growth means that employment in Croatia's IT industry and of IT professionals in IT-using organisations will rise by 6,000 jobs in the four years from the end of 2009 to the end of 2013, up from a 2009 base of 26,000.

That represents a growth of 3.5% a year from now through 2013, which is nearly thirty four times faster than the growth of total employment in the Adriatic country of 4.4 million.

Software drives activity in the services and distribution sectors, as well as in IT-using organisations, which means that while spending on packaged software will be only 14% of total IT spending in 2009, 48% of IT employment in Croatia will be software-related.

The IT market will drive the creation of nearly 200 new businesses between now and the end of 2013. Most of these companies will be small and locally-owned organizations.

IT spending in central and eastern Europe (CEE) will be $46 billion (31.3 billion euro) in 2009. From the end of 2008 to the end of 2013, IT spending will grow 5.8% a year across the region.

Besides Croatia, the other CEE countries included in the survey are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Russia and Poland.

(1 euro=7.2592 Croatian kuna)