A recent survey by Datamonitor indicates that while technology vendors would face a slump in IT budgets across enterprises, the trend would be bucked by the healthcare sector, which would enhance IT spend in 2009.

The report also points out that contrary to what many may think, the downward trend is not solely due to the current economic climate. It has in fact been evident over the last couple of years.

It vendors should be wary in assuming that the recent downturn in IT budgets is a short lived phenomenon, says Daniel Okubo, technology analyst with Data Monitor and the author of the report.

For the past couple of years enterprises have been cutting back IT budget increases as they adopt a more cautious viewpoint of the global economy. More recently, the financial services market, as seen by the recent collapse of Lehman Brothers, is suffering from a crisis in confidence caused by a spate of write-downs and concerns over liquidity.

Data Monitor has analyzed the responses of over 8000 IT decision makers between 2006 and 2008. For the fourth consecutive year the number of enterprises planning to significantly increase their IT budget has fallen.

While the retail and manufacturing industries are suffering from high interest rates, falling domestic demand, inflation and higher commodity prices, the healthcare industry is planning significant spending increases in 2009, with 57% of respondents in the industry saying they plan to expand IT expenditure.