Infosys hints at revenue slowdown

Infosys has raised a warning sign about the deteriorating economic environment which has the potential to adversely affect revenue growth in the coming months. V Balakrishnan, the Bangalorebased company's chief financial officer, said the company will not miss its revenue growth forecast for the October-December quarter or the financial year ending in March. But he said India's second-largest software exporter, which has earned a reputation as a company that exceeds its guidance regularly, cannot confirm that sales growth will be at the upper end of the forecast. "The world is in a terrible mess and things are deteriorating. We will be somewhere in the range. We don't know whether it will be at the lower end or the upper end," Balakrishnan told ET on Monday. Earlier in the day, Dow Jones newswire quoted Balakrishnan as saying Infosys may miss the upper end of its sales growth forecast of 3-5% for the December quarter and 17.1-19.1% for the financial year, or $7.08-7.2 billion. Infosys is regarded as a bellwether for the software industry and any comment by the company is closely watched for signals about what it portends for the rest. Infosys' language on its prospects has been cautious from the beginning of the financial year