Brazil ICT sector sees growth in 2021, represents 6.9% of GDP | ZDNet

The information technology and communications (ICT) sector has seen double-digit growth in 2021, driven by internal market demand for hardware, software, and services, according to numbers released by the Brazilian Association of Information Technology and Communication Companies (Brasscom).

In 2021, the Brazilian ICT sector generated revenues of 597.8 billion Brazilian reais, up 18.3% in relation to the previous year, according to the trade body. The association also noted that the sector accounts for 6.9% of Brazil’s GDP. 

Within ICT, the segment encompassing IT, software, cloud services, and business process outsourcing generated 293 billion Brazilian reais ($62 billion USD). According to Brasscom, this was mainly driven by the domestic market, which represents 80% of the total sector revenues. and grew 49.5% in 2021, totaling 258.4 billion Brazilian reais ($55 billion USD).

According to the trade body, the hardware sector had the best performance, with a 48.6% increase in revenues to 125.5 billion Brazilian reais ($26 billion USD). The software segment saw a 42.5% uptick, to 40.6 billion Brazilian reais ($8.7 billion USD), whilst cloud saw a 36,7% increase in business to 22.6 billion Brazilian reais ($4.8 billion USD). Services firms grew 16.5%, generating 69.7 billion Brazilian reais ($14.9 billion USD) in revenue in 2021.

Revenues for the telecommunications sector reached 251.7 billion Brazilian reais ($54 billion USD) in 2021, an increase of 4.7% on the prior year. According to Brasscom, the segment represents 2.9% of Brazil’s GDP. Internal technology departments in non-IT companies such as banks, generated 53 billion Brazilian reais ($11.3 billion USD) in 2021, an increase of 6.4%.

When it comes to exports, the Brazilian ICT sector generated 34.6 billion Brazilian reais ($7.4 billion USD) in revenues in 2021, according to the trade body.

At the start of 2021, market analyst IDC had predicted that the Brazilian ICT market would grow by 7%. At the time, the firm said the Covid-19 pandemic changed investment plans drastically at user organizations, and intentions to boost investments plummeted to a record low in May and June. On the other hand, IDC noted that buyers became a lot more confident about ICT investments in Brazil, with 50% of companies planning to increase spend in 2021.