German technology and telecoms association Bitkom said it expects the sector's sales in Germany to grow again in 2011 after flat sales this year, as companies start to beef up their post-crisis IT budgets.

The bottleneck in spending for IT solutions for companies is slowly dissolving, Bitkom head August-Wilhelm Scheer said on Monday at the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover.

Bitkom expects industry sales in Germany to grow by 1.6 percent to 142 billion euros ($192.9 billion) in 2011 after flat sales this year.

Above all, demand is picking up significantly in the information technology (IT) segment, Scheer added.

Software sales, affecting companies such as SAP and Software AG, are seen up 0.9 percent in 2010 at 14.4 billion euros, and seen rising 4.1 percent in 2011.

IT spending has been dealt a blow by the global financial crisis as companies have slashed budgets, but signs of a recovery are emerging as global players hint at a pickup, albeit a slow one.

SAP in January forecast a slow recovery for global business software markets as companies remain wary about investing but pleased investors with a strong fourth-quarter performance in Asia.

Software AG in February said it saw 2010 sales adjusted for currencies up 25-30 percent.

Germany