Cisco warned on Wednesday of a 5-10 per cent slump in its revenues in the current quarter as the collapse in IT spending seen in October spreads

Despite that, the dominant maker of routers and switches used in data networks stuck to its long-term forecasts, which call for growth of 12-17 per cent. It also said it planned to slice $1bn from its annual costs by next summer, with a hiring freeze already in place since the middle of last month.