Nasscom May Lower IT Export Revenue Growth Forecast

New Delhi: Software association Nasscom is likely to announce lowering of export revenue growth guidance of 10-12 per cent for 2016-17 on Wednesday.

The industry body had already indicated that it will revise downwards its export revenue growth outlook for the ongoing fiscal year amid global macroeconomic uncertainties and the impact of Britain's exit from the European Union.

Nasscom has sent out an invitation for a meeting with its leadership team on "IT industry performance" but did not disclose any other details about the agenda.

Earlier this month, Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar had told PTI that "a revision is clearly on the cards and it will be downwards".

According to industry watchers, the growth rate could be lowered by 1-2 percentage points.

It had said it would take a decision after completing its analysis by mid-November after all IT companies announced their financial performance for the September quarter.

At the beginning of the year, Nasscom had projected a 10-12 per cent growth for Indian software services segment for 2016-17.

This was lower than the 12.3 per cent export revenue growth (in constant currency) in 2015-16.

Last month, Wipro posted a drop in its second quarter net profit and warned that revenues in the October-December quarter could be impacted by a "mixed demand environment".

Wipro's third quarter guidance of 0-2 per cent sequential growth reflected sentiment similar to that of larger rivals, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys.

TCS and Infosys posted muted growth numbers for the second quarter as well and said they were witnessing softness in the banking and financial services sector and client spending.

Infosys, in fact, slashed its annual revenue guidance for the second time this year to 8-9 per cent.