The nine month run of consistent revenue acceleration across the global information technology market came to an end in July. The Infoconomy Index, which tracks the growth rate of the world’s 200 largest technology companies, dropped by half a percentage point to 11.8% during the month.

Meanwhile, the European index, which monitors a subset of 50 companies headquartered in the region, dropped to 5.4%, the lowest rate of revenue growth for over two years.

A downward pull on the global index came from an unlikely source: the Indian IT services companies. Although their rates of growth were way ahead of the average, companies such as Infosys and TCS saw the escalating value of the rupee deplete the dollar value of their revenues (see Financial Report). So although growth was still in the 20% to 30% range, it was considerably slower then the 30% to 40% growth contributions they have made to the overall index in previous quarters.

A more directly negative influence on the Index came from a wider group. UK-based banking software company Misys reported a 20% fall in second half revenues, although annual revenues for on-going operations (after the company disposed of several US and healthcare interests) were down a less drastic 4%. Other quarter-on-quarter falls in revenue were experienced by systems management group Compuware, where sales were down 6%; Avaya, the communications equipment giant, which saw its revenue drop by 2%; and IT services and servers company Unisys, which also saw a 2% drop.

Microsoft pushed the index higher with 13% growth, and thanks to both acquisition-derived and organic revenue, information infrastructure company EMC pulled off a 21% revenue hike.

The Infoconomy 200 Index measures the overall growth rate of the IT industry by tracking the financial results of the world’s most important publicly listed IT companies. For more details, go to www.information-age.com.