Despite an economy on the brink of recession, the Russian market for IT services has grown by 7.4 percent this year, technology consulting firm Orange Business Services said Thursday.
Russia's ICT services market, which includes IT and telecommunications services, is worth 635 billion rubles ($11.5 billion) and will grow to 750 billion rubles by 2017, even as Russia's sanctions-squeezed economy struggles to avoid contracting, according to Orange's report.
Olivier Quesson, Orange Business Service's commercial director for Russia and the CIS, said Russian customers were looking for ways to optimize spending amid the downturn: "Difficult economic situations and sanctions do not limit, but rather change, the direction of market growth," he said.
Growth in IT services will outstrip telecommunications, the report said, with two key drivers being outsourcing, which will grow 17 percent by 2017, and IT consulting, which will expand by 12 percent over the next two years.
