Infosys pegs IT industry growth at 15% in FY09

Infosys Technologies, the country's second largest software exporter, today said the domestic IT industry is likely to grow by 15 per cent this year as compared to 30 per cent growth last year in the wake of global slowdown.

"Last year, the IT industry grew more than 30 per cent, this year it is looking at somewhere in the region of 15 per cent. So, it has slowed down," Infosys CEO S Gopalakrishnan told reporters here on the sidelines of the CII conference.

IT industry association Nasscom has pegged the growth rate at 21 per cent for this year due to the downturn in the world's largest economy US, which contributes 60 per cent of the total revenue.

"As per the estimates we are getting from industry bodies it looks like the sector will register a growth of 15 per cent this year," Gopalakrishnan added.

However, he clarified that Infosys will stick to its revenue guidance for the third quarter and the fiscal.

Infosys had earlier scaled down its dollar guidance (revenue projection in dollars) by about three per cent for the full year to 13.1-15.2 per cent.

Infosys has seen delays in orders but there was no change in its third quarter guidance, Gopalakrishnan added.

On hiring plans, he added Infosys would hire 25,000 people this year, but there would be no fresh recruitments beyond that, except in specific skills.

He further clarified that there were no plans to cut headcount.