IBM predicts timid growth in Brazil for 2015

IBM's Brazilian division is predicting a tough second quarter and a second half of 2015 marred by slow growth.

This year should see a 9 percent growth rate, which is similar to the numbers from 2014, the company's Brazil head Marcelo Porto told Brazilian newspaper Valor Econômico.

The downbeat outlook for this year's performance are related to the country's overall economic situation, which Porto believes will start showing signs of improvement from 2016 onwards.

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Brazil is the first country where IBM has set up shop outside the United States. The company employs 18,000 staff and has focused heavily on its cloud, Big Data, mobility and social media offering in the last few years.

Despite the temporary contraction forecast for 2015, the main focus areas for IBM in Brazil are predicted to grow in the next few years: for example, the local cloud computing market should see a jump in market revenuesfrom $328.8m in 2013 to $1.1bn by 2017, according to research by consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

Separate Frost & Sullivan research suggests that the Brazilian Big Data and analytics marketshould turn around $965m by 2018 from $242.6m in 2013.