Singapore, Nov 7: In one of the earliest signs of how multinational companies will fare in Asia's financial storm, sales growth for personal computers slowed sharply in the third quarter, new industry estimates reveal.

However, there was no cause for immediate worry as strong demand in India and China should keep total revenues in Asia from falling this year, it said.

Revenues from PC sales in Asia outside Japan in the third quarter rose just eight per cent to $4.86 billion, as per figures from market research firm IDC Asia/Pacific Ltd.

That compares with the 19 per cent sales growth in the second quarter and 26 per cent growth in the third-quarter of 1996.

IDC analyst Dane Anderson said lower demand in troubled markets was exacerbated by the fact that PC manufacturers were not able to raise their locally denominated prices as fast as regional currencies fell.

Consequently, they earned less when they converted their earnings into dollars.

Strong sales in India and China, however, helped keep the number of PCs sold in Asia rising steadily. Sales in unit term grew 23 per cent in the quarter, IDC said, adding that India had surpassed Taiwan to become fourth largest.

India remained a bright spot in an otherwise lacklustre market with unit sales jumping 51 per cent, Anderson said, adding that the growth was fuelled in part by an intensified effort by intel to sell its Pentium microprocessors to local PC-makerThe US dollar value of PC sales is particularly important because three of the top five PC companies in Asia are American -- IBM, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard.

Sales in southeast Asia were particularly poor with unit sales in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines combined grew only seven per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier.

While Anderson was confident that total Asian revenues would be kept from falling due to strong Indian and Chinese demand, he felt southeast Asian was likely to go down further.

He also warns that the region's financial troubles could spread to affect PC sales elsewhere. ``Two countries I think it might affect are Taiwan and Hong kong.''

The ripple effect has also buffeted sales of computer equipment and services in Australia, according to Navin Mehta, vice president of Digital Equipment Corp's operation management services in Asia.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.