Growth in the Asia Pacific technology market will slow to 4% in 2020 as conditions become stormy, the American market research company Forrester has predicted.

Online retail sales in the Asia Pacific region are set to almost double in the five years from 2019, growing from US$1.3 trillion in 2018 to US$2.5 trillion in 2023, the American market research company Forrester says, adding that would represent a compound annual growth rate of 14% and account for 28% of global sales.

Australian firms’ “need for speed” will drive tech spending in 2019, according to one global analyst firm which projects Australia’s tech market growth to accelerate from 1% in 2018 to 2% in 2019 and 3% in 2020.