“Overall IT&C sales increased 8% in 2010 and 2% in 2011, recovering the decline posted in 2009 and returning to the level of EUR9.4 billion posted in 2008. Production and services sold registered a similar growth and total IT&C exports, which continued to grow throughout the economic crisis, topped EUR4.7 billion, 55% higher than in 2008,” the institute said in a press release Friday.
The years 2010 and 2011 brought the local IT&C industry back on the growth track, said the survey’s coordinator, Mircea Vuici. After a significant decline in 2009, the software and services sector resumed growth in 2010, when it reached EUR2.4 billion (+10.2%) and climbed further in 2011, to EUR2.59 billion (+8%).
“We could safely say the sector overcame the crisis two years ago, and 2011 sales topped the levels from before the crisis. This growth was fueled mainly by exports which, due to robust external demand, grew 37% from 2008, while revenues on the local market only increased 6%, which was not enough to cover for the decline registered in 2009,” the release states.
The telecom sector continued to decline in 2010-2011, but the declines were not as harsh. Overall telecom sales dropped 7.3% in 2010, to EUR4.4 billion, and a further 4.7% in 2011, to EUR4.19 billion, impacted by a drop in revenues from hardline and mobile telephony and analog cable TV services, which have not been compensated by growth in broadband internet broadband and digital TV services.
Compared to 2008, overall telecom sales dropped 23%, losing around EUR930 million each year.
In the hardware and electronics sector, 2010 and 2011 brought a general re-launch of production, benefiting both EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) contractors and producers. Sales on this segment posted growth of over 50% in 2010 and just 7%-8% in 2011, doubling in value compared to 2008.
The evolution of this sector was impacted by Nokia’s local production, which stood at 65% of overall production in the sector in 2010. “Although the added value has been below expectations, it will be difficult to compensate Nokia’s market exit in the following years,” the release states.
The telecom sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product has decreased to 1.7%, much lower than in 2008. The contribution of the software and services sector to the GDP rose to nearly 1%, while that of the hardware sector reached 0.24%.
Hardware and electronics exports registered two years of growth (+51% and +11%), reaching EUR3.39 billion in 2011, and the sector’s weight in total exports increased to 9.5%, from 5% two years before.