IBM says not counting on G7 recovery this year

NEW YORK (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is not counting on recovery in established G7 markets for growth this year, and is looking instead to emerging markets like India and China, Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge said on Wednesday.

"If I were in a business model where I needed double-digit growth out of the G7 to drive my performance, I would be in a cold sweat," Loughridge told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York.

"We're not counting on a resurgence or recovery to achieve our growth for the year," he said referring to established markets in the G7 countries -- the United States, Japan, Canada, Italy, Germany, France and United Kingdom.

"But we are counting on the high-growth markets to continue to grow," he said, noting that the company enjoyed more than 10 percent growth in 50 countries last year. These markets include Argentina, Australia, South Africa, Poland, Spain and Russia.

The executive said IBM has gauged its investment and expectations "more conservatively in all the established G7-like markets" amid worries about slower growth and credit concerns in the U.S.

Loughridge downplayed concerns that any slowdown in the developed economies could spread to emerging markets.

"I personally see less linkage, dependency, between the established markets and the high growth markets," he said.

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando and Eric Auchard; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)