The Impact of the Crisis on ICTs and their Role in the Recovery

The ICT industry had a tough start to 2009, with almost all first quarter indicators declining, often very sharply. There are signs of recovery, with the rate of decline bottoming out and turning up in the most recent cyclical data (May/June 2009), with positive month-on-month growth for most countries, and inventories running down sharply. Performance in the first quarter of 2009 tested 2001-2002 declines in most ICT sectors, but relative year-on-year declines were not a great deal worse than in 2001-2002 and some sectors have performed better than in the earlier period. The ICT industry is also performing considerably better in this crisis than industries such as automobiles...