Global spending on information technology will grow more slowly than expected this year due to weaker economies and floods in Thailand, research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

Gartner cut its forecast for 2012 worldwide IT spending growth to 3.7 percent from its earlier estimate of 4.6 percent growth. In 2011, worldwide IT spending totalled $3.7 trillion, up 6.9 percent from 2010.

'Faltering global economic growth, the euro zone crisis and the impact of Thailand's floods on hard-disk drive (HDD) production have all taken their toll on the outlook for IT spending,' Richard Gordon, research vice president at Gartner, said in a statement.- Reuters