Industry experts have predicted that companies and governments will spend over $663 billion on external services worldwide in 2006.

According to the latest data from IDC, this spending will represent moderate growth of 6.8% from 2005. The IDC study noted that outsourcing, in particular business outsourcing and application management services, continue to fuel the worldwide services industry.

On a regional basis IDC predicts that the Americas, particularly the U.S.A., will continue to host a majority of the services opportunity throughout the forecast period.

However, the fastest-growing regions are Central Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) and Latin America.

IDC also predicts that worldwide spending on external services will increase at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 6.9% during 2006–2010, reaching more than $866 billion.