The Portuguese financial sector reduced spending on Information and Communication Technologies by 13.8 percent, reveals a study published today by IDC. The Banking subsector, which represents 75 percent of the investment, spent 12.3 percent less on technology than the previous year.
The figures refer to investments during 2009 and show that – despite a slight increase in software spending, where the sector invested 2.4 percent more than in the same period last year – areas such as services, communications or hardware were quite punished by budget cuts.
With regard to computer services (which represent 40% of the total), expenses decreased by 12.1 percent, in communications services they were in the order of 16.2 percent and in hardware – where the greatest reduction is recorded – even reach the 31.5 percent.
In total, the sector spent a total of 953.2 million euros on ICT in 2009, while a year earlier the expenditure stood at 1.106 million. It is recalled that the financial sector, composed of banks and insurance companies, is responsible for 75 percent of the total national investments in Information and Communication Technologies.
