IT spending will likely return to growth next year, although it will be modest - about four per cent worldwide for the whole year.

This will be partly driven by pent-up demand - purchases and upgrades which have been delayed by recession fears this year.

The survey, from Goldman Sachs, found businesses expecting to increase spending on software has doubled from 21 per cent in June to 44 per cent this month. Demand for hardware is up from 37 per cent in June to 58 per cent now.

The bank sees this as "tip of the spear" as various factors combine to push spending up.

It also expects spending on discretionary services to grow in the next six months - likely benefitting the likes of Accenture and Cognizant.

Infrastructure, application development and systems integration are top of CIOs wish lists, with virtualisation and cloud computing coming next. ®