HP has reported first quarter revenue growth of just one per cent compared to last year to $28.8bn (£20bn), but profit fell 13.5 per cent to $1.85bn (£1.3bn), caused by decreased demand for desktop systems, printers and servers.

Revenue increased by 11 per cent in the Americas to $12.4bn, but declined significantly in Europe and Asia Pacific by three and 11 per cent respectively at $12bn and $4.4bn. HP said first quarter revenue outside the US was 65 per cent of the total with key developing countries accounting for seven per cent, a 22 per cent decline.

The only bright spot was that services revenue climbed by 116 per cent to $8.7bn on the back of the EDS acquisition. The rest of HP's technology groups all showed declined.

The Personal Systems Group saw a revenue fall of 19 per cent to $8.8bn, as did the Imaging and Printing Group, which declined 19 per cent to $6bn. Enterprise Storage and Servers posted an 18 per cent dip to $3.9bn, while HP Software sales dropped seven per cent to $878m. HP Financial Services showed the least decline, down by just one per cent to $636m.

Speculating on the outlook for the second quarter, HP said that first quarter market conditions would persist and estimated a revenue decline of " approximately two to three percent from the prior-year period", with the full year outlook declining by "approximately two to five per cent from the prior-year period."