A new study says the technology industry has started to recover from the economic downturn and will see worldwide growth this year.

Forrester Research said Thursday that the fourth quarter marks a turning point worldwide, setting the stage for growth in 2010.

Forrester expects the U.S. information technology market to grow by 8.4 percent this year to $550 billion. The worldwide tech market, meanwhile, will grow by 7.7 percent to $1.6 trillion.

Analyst Andrew Bartels says the shape of this year's recovery is generally the same as Forrester's January forecast.

The U.S. outlook is slightly better, and the global forecast is a little lower, hurt by the Greek financial crisis that weakened the euro and strengthened the dollar.