Asia-Pacific is forecast to spend US$689 billion on tech goods and services this year, led by China which has surpassed Japan to become the region’s biggest tech spender

Asia-Pacific is expected to spend US$689 billion on tech goods and services in 2016, led by China which has surpassed Japan to become the region’s biggest tech spender.

This would climb to US$723 billion in 2017, according to projections from Forrester.

In local currencies, the region’s tech expenditure would chalk up US$598 billion this year and US$621 billion in 2017, growing at 4.5 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively. Against the US dollar, the growth rate would drop to 3.2 percent this year, but still would be healthier than a 2.8 percent decline in 2015.

Currency fluctuations would play an influencing factor in the tech markets, especially against the US dollars against which all Asia-Pacific currencies fell in 2015. This pushed US-denominated tech market growth to decline, Forrester explained.

The research firm noted that India and China would clock some of the fastest tech market growth, while Japan and Australia were expected to have some of the slowest.

According to its estimates, China in 2015 become the region’s largest tech spender at US$209 billion, bypassing Japan–which spent US$203 billion–for the first time. In 2014, Japan spent US$229 billion, compared to China’s US$192 billion.

This year, China was forecast to chalk up US$224 billion in tech expenditure, followed by Japan’s US$203 billion and India at US$57 billion.

Forrester noted, however, that China’s growth would be slower than in past years, as the country’s declining economic growth would result in tech buyers becoming conservative in their purchases. Read more