Baku, Azerbaijan, May 29
By Huseyn Veliyev - Trend:
The volume of the information technology market of Azerbaijan is estimated to grow to $903.8 million by the end of 2018, the IDC (International Data Corporation) Company said in a statement.
According to IDC forecasts, the growth of the IT sector of Azerbaijan in 2018 will be 16.3 percent, the growth of the hardware equipment market will be 15.7 percent, IT services-18.8 percent, and software - 19.7 percent.
In the medium term until 2022, the IT market of Azerbaijan, according to IDC, will maintain double-digit growth rates largely due to measures taken in the field of government digitalization, the spread of broadband Internet and digital transformation of the private sector.
The average annual growth rate of the IT market of Azerbaijan for the period of 2018-2022 will be 12.3 percent.
By 2022, the volume of the IT market will double compared to the level of 2018 and will amount to $1.6 billion.
According to IDC, 2017 was marked by the stabilization of Azerbaijan's economy, after the stagnation in 2016 and the crisis of 2015-2016. Thanks to a balanced macroeconomic policy and structural reforms, the country managed to stop the fall in GDP and to chart a course for further economic growth.
This was largely due to tighter monetary policy and more flexible exchange rate policies. In real economy, the rise in oil prices, as well as the growth of non-commodity sectors such as agriculture and services, have led to a recovery in aggregate demand and budget revenues.
All these measures could not but have a positive impact on the country's IT market, which, according to IDC, increased in 2017 by 8.2 percent compared to the fall by 20.1 percent in 2016. The main reason for such a large drop in the IT market in 2016 was the reduction in the costs of the public sector, oil companies, the suspension of large projects and the decline in effective demand due to decline in the national currency.
Currently, there are a number of prerequisites that indicate good prospects for the growth of the IT market of Azerbaijan in 2018 and in the near medium term.
Among the most positive changes in the coming years which will significantly affect the economy of Azerbaijan in general and the IT market in particular, there are the restructuring of the banking sector, reforms in the social sphere, and the completion and launch of major projects.
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