According to a new Gartner report, the worldwide enterprise IT spending is estimated to reach $2.679 trillion in 2013, a 2.5 percent increase of projected 2012 spending of $2.603 trillion. Sectors including banking, communications, media and services (CMS) and manufacturing are expected to offer the largest volume of growth opportunities through 2016.

The report says the manufacturing and natural resources sectors will lead the vertical markets, with total spending expected to reach $478 billion in 2013, up 2.3 percent from $467 billion in 2012.

Although manufacturers worldwide have been steadily reducing their IT purchases since the recession of 2008 -- and since the manufacturing industry's IT buying centers adopted tighter IT cost controls amid a myriad of mixed market signals -- Gartner analysts believe that “IT spending rates are expected to bottom out in 2013.”

According to Gartner analysts, IT spending will be flexible over the long run, “as business confidence is restored and the value proposition of a nexus of new technology forces -- social, mobile, big data and cloud -- is increasingly championed by senior leaders.”

The banking and securities sector will have strong growth in 2013 and is expected to reach $460 billion in 2013, up 3.5 percent from $445 billion in 2012. On the other hand, the CMS sector is forecast to grow 3 percent in 2013 to $426 billion, up from $414 billion in 2012. Firms in the CMS sectors will typically spend approximately 5 percent of their revenue on IT on average over a five-year period, well above the median for all industries.

"The global economic outlook has deteriorated in 2012, leading to scant overall growth in enterprise IT spending," says Kenneth Brant, research director at Gartner. "However, our third-quarter outlook points to more substantial growth in 2013, if significant fiscal crises are avoided in the U.S. and Europe, and in subsequent years.”

“Most enterprises have already significantly cut discretionary IT spending growth over the past several years and, barring a global economic catastrophe and significant contraction of operations, they have little room to reduce IT spending further over the long run,” Brant adds.

According to the report, transportation and insurance will also become high-growth sectors in the short term with both reaching over 4 percent growth in 2013.

IT spending in the transportation sector is expected to total $126 billion in 2013, up from $121 billion in 2012. IT spending in insurance will reach $187 billion in 2013, up from $179 billion in 2012.

When it comes to government IT spending, the cost is forecast to decline 2 percent and the decline is expected to continue through 2013. In 2013, government IT spending is forecast to total $445 billion, down from $447 billion in 2012.

Brant says it’s the austerity measures and budgetary reductions that have affected government spending worldwide as measured by the reconciliation of government budget proposals across the U.S. and Europe.

In terms of Asia-Pacific IT spending, the cost is estimated to reach $743 billion in 2013, a 7.9 percent increase over 2012, while it is expected to grow 7.6 percent in 2012, according to another Gartner report published recently.

Manufacturing