The Net Times

Forrester: 43% of large global companies have cut IT budgets in 2008

The challenges facing tech companies are now spreading outside the US and all along the technology chain. Demand in Europe and Asian emerging markets that had partly offset US weakness is slowing. Corporate and domestic customers are both being squeezed. Forrester’s survey found nearly half of financial services companies, their balance sheets creaking, have trimmed IT spending. Ciena warned that phone companies, feeling no urgency to upgrade technology, are delaying new contracts. And cash-strapped consumers are, says Qualcomm’s chief, keeping old mobile phones longer. More…

Note that Nordea predicts that Finland is expected to withstand slowdown better than rest of Europe although inflation accelerated to 4.7 % in August 2008.