SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker, on Wednesday lowered forecast for its revenue in the fourth quarter of 2008, another indication of how the economic downturn has hit the tech industry.

The company said it now expects its fourth-quarter revenue to be 8.2 billion U.S. dollars, 20 percent lower from the prior quarter and down 23 percent year over year.

In November 2008, Intel already warned of a drop in revenue, saying its fourth-quarter revenue would be 9 billion dollars, plus or minus 300 million dollars, lower than the previous expectation of between 10.1 billion and 10.9 billion dollars.

The latest revision of revenueoutlook is a result of "further weakness in end demand and inventory reductions by its customers in the global PC supply chain," Intel said in a statement.

At the beginning of this year, the Semiconductor Industry Association, based in San Jose, California, reported that worldwide sales of semiconductors dropped to 20.8 billion dollars in November 2008, a decline of 9.8 percent compared with a year ago.

Intel said it still expects gross margin for the fourth quarter to be at the bottom of the previous expectation of 55 percent, plus or minus a couple of points.

Intel's stock fell 3.7 percent at the New York market on Wednesday.
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