Analysis of the Effect of Economic Development on Expenditures and Investments into IT in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary

Economy is based on the growing impact of information technologies (IT). Their effective use can greatly influence the development of competitiveness and building of an information society. Modern IT have significantly changed both the availability and methods and options of work with information. IT have greatly contributed to changes in a number of corporate activities including manufacture, warehousing, sales or controlling. The relevance, of IT keeps growing and is able to at least partly affect macroeconomic variables. On the other hand economic development can certainly affect expenditures and investments into IT. The main aim of this article is to find out how economic development in the years 2006 - 2010 affected expenditures and investments into IT in the Czech Republic and countries with similar history in Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. The secondary objective of this contribution is to describe factors playing a role in the development. The statistical analysis of data obtained from Eurostat and the Czech Statistical Office has revealed that the development of GDP affected expenditures and investments into IT in all studied countries. The general factor affecting the amounts invested into or spent for IT in all analysed economies included, in addition to the GDP indicator, especially big state projects in IT, expenditures of telecommunication operators and other big companies into infrastructure development, rationalisation of costs in the context of strategic planning and new trends.