(Reuters) -French IT consulting group Capgemini cut its 2024 revenue target for the second time this year on Wednesday, after continued weakness in some of its markets, especially manufacturing, hit its third-quarter sales.

The group, which offers services ranging from cloud and AI to enterprise management across a wide array of industries, had in July forecast a surprise fall in its annual revenue due to a downturn in the automotive and aerospace sectors.

It now expects its revenue to decline by between 2% and 2.4% at a constant currency basis, versus its previous forecast for a drop of 0.5% to 1.5%.

Capgemini's revenue fell 1.6% at constant exchange rates to 5.38 billion euros ($5.82 billion) in the third quarter.

"In a market that remains soft overall, we expect to deliver a similar growth in Q4," CEO Aiman Ezzat said in the earnings statement, though he added the company expected headwinds tech and telecom sectors to ease gradually.

"Client demand continues to be driven by operational efficiencies and cost reduction and we seize their growing appetite for AI and Gen AI services," Ezzat said.

($1 = 0.9244 euros)