Ben Verwaayen, chief executive of Alcatel-Lucent, said he expected the telecoms sector to return to low single-digit growth in 2010 and that the company was still on target to reach break-even at the end of the year.

His assurances come despite the fact that the Franco-American telecoms equipment maker reported a 9.3 per cent fall in revenues to €3.68bn ($5.5bn) for the third quarter.