Perhaps for the first time in its 25 years of existence, the IT industry’s apex body Nasscom has shied away from providing a forecast for the next financial year. The industry, which mainly relies on software exports, was impacted by the uncertainties and slowdown in discretionary spending.

The industry body has shied away from making a forecast for fiscal 2018, citing political uncertainties in the US and Europe, which has slowed down decision-making in tech spending.

“We could have given a guidance of 6-10 per cent growth, based on statistics of our experts, but we decided to hold on for another quarter,” Nasscom Chairman C. P. Gurnani said, adding that quantifying guidance still requires some work.

“Going by the fact that there are a number of uncertainties, we will be able to provide a forecast only by early next quarter. We hope to grow at more reliable numbers in the next few quarters,” he added.

The Indian IT sector, which had earlier warned against the curbs on outsourcing, stayed away from providing a forecast for the financial year 2018, while it stated that re-skilling would be the future of the industry.

However, the industry is expecting to close FY17 with overall growth of 8.6 per cent, the lower end of the earlier predicted 8-10 per cent for FY17. This itself was revised in December from Nasscom’s prediction at the beginning of the year, which was at 10-12 per cent.

Of the 8.6 per cent, 12-15 per cent of revenues would come from digital, which is the next wave happening in the IT sector.

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