The ICT sector added in revenue – Newspaper Kommersant No. 5 (7450) dated 01/13/2023

In the third quarter of 2022, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector managed to improve its performance and overcome the negative trends of the first half of the year, experts from the HSE Institute for Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) conclude. The volume of products sold in the sector increased by 6.9% in annual terms and by 5% in quarterly terms, reaching 1.276 trillion rubles. As a result, the share of ICT in the total volume of goods, works and services sold increased from 3.8% in the second quarter to 4.1% in the third.

The IT industry remains the driver of the sector (plus 21% in annual terms, sales amounted to 504.8 billion rubles). The telecommunications sector showed an annual growth of 0.6%, up to 520.1 billion rubles. Production of ICT increased by 3.6%, to 179.8 billion rubles. Revenue in the wholesale trade in ICT goods decreased by 13.2% compared to the third quarter of 2021, to 388.7 billion rubles, but increased by 18.7% compared to the second quarter of 2022. The likely reason for the growth is the establishment of supply chains, including parallel imports.

The sector also has negative trends: the average number of employees (most of them are in the IT industry and other IT services) continued to decline – minus 1% compared to the previous quarter, to 1.3 million people. The average salary also decreased (minus 4.4 thousand rubles per quarter, to 104.4 thousand rubles per month). “The slight decline in the number of personnel in the IT industry is most likely an echo of the spring wave of migration – such a lag can be explained by the fact that many IT specialists continued to work for domestic companies in the first months after their departure,” says the deputy director of the ISSEK Center for Strategies and Programs Tamara Zina.

Also on Wednesday, the ISSEK Center for Market Research presented data on industry investment trends in digital and technological development in 2022. The center’s experts record that 42% of industrial enterprises purchased ICT equipment, the average share of capital investments in its purchase amounted to 7.8% of their total volume. More than a quarter (26%) of companies reported an increase compared to 2021 intent to invest in digital technologies.

Venera Petrova