'Last year, New Zealand's IT spending as a percentage of GDP was 3.3 percent, which is just below the U.S. and the U.K., and above Australia, which spent three percent of GDP on IT,' he says.

The Information Society Index takes into account computer, telecom, internet and social aspects, and combines a country's ranking in these areas, Muller said at last month's IDC Directions conference.

The computer index looks at IT in relation to GDP, computer uptake, software and IT services. New Zealand ranks as number 12, while the U.S. is number one, the U.K. number 10 and Australia 16th. China and India are at the far end of the scale, at 47 and 51 respectively.

The telecom index involves, for example, the number of wireless subscribers, broadband penetration and network investments.

New Zealand slips back to number 28 in this index, compared to Australia at number seven, the U.S. at number 13 and the U.K. at number 19. The BRIC-countries ' Brazil, Russia, India and China ' are far behind. India is number 52 of 53. Muller says New Zealand's poor rating is due to low levels of broadband uptake.