SiliconBeat

Spending on information technology in the U.S. continues to grow but at a reduced ratecompared with last year, according to market research firm IDC, which expects roughly 4 percent growth overall, down from 6 percent.

Softening demand in the PC market is leading the decline with hardware sales set to grow less than 2 percent this year, while software spending is expected to grow 7 percent and IT services by 5 percent.

“In every previous IT recession, the first sign of weakness has shown up in a softening of PC shipments. This has then transmitted to other hardware sectors within one quarter, to software license sales within half a year, and to the IT services sector if the recession persists for more than three quarters,” according to Stephen Minton, IDC’s vice president of worldwide IT markets.

International demand continues to mitigate the impact of the U.S. slowdown, according to the IDC report, but part of that is because of favorable currency trends which have buoyed the reported earnings of U.S.-based vendors. However, IDC sees “some tentative signs of weakening demand” in Europe and Asia.

IDC lowered its forecast for Western Europe to 4.1% growth in IT spending this year, and for Asia/Pacific to 5.4%. Booming growth has continued in “resource-based economies such as Russia and the Middle East” where IT spending is expected to continue a “double-digit” rate of growth this year.