The local IT sector is in for a tough year, as slowing economic growth and a shift to cloud computing are lowering the industry’s expected gain to levels below those internationally.

Last year, the South African IT sector grew at more than two times gross domestic product, hitting $12.7 billion – or almost R100 billion. However, this year expected gains are only set to come in at 4.9%, 2.5 percentage points lower than 2011’s figures.

Globally, the IT sector should grow at 5.4%, after improving 5.2% in 2011, to total $1.8 trillion – or R14 trillion – according to figures from IDC. The research house estimates $13.4 billion was spent on IT in SA, excluding telecoms, during 2010.

Among the reasons behind the slowdown in growth is a shift towards cloud computing, which is hampering hardware sales and affecting gains across the sector. In addition, SA’s economy is expected to slow to 2.3% this year, after growing at 3.1% in 2011, which is weighing on sales.

While the 7.4% growth seen last year was a decline in percentage terms on the previous year’s growth of 8.7%, 2010’s gains were off a low base, as investment contracted 3.7% during 2009, and spending also benefited from investments because of the Fifa Soccer World Cup.

IDC’s research analyst for IT services, Suzanne Marsay, says the hardware sector is lagging in SA, which is dragging local growth fi gures below international gains. Hardware sales, which grew at 5.5% last year, compared to a global average of 6.3%, is expected to slump to 0.2%, while the global figure will be flat.

The research company expects a decline in server sales, especially in the high-end server space, as end-users opt for virtualisation servers. IDC also anticipates a slowdown in desktop computers as people opt for notebooks, because of a preference for mobility.