diff --git a/misc/translator/xgettext.pl b/misc/translator/xgettext.pl
index ef1fb3db4a..f2ab7ccc23 100755
--- a/misc/translator/xgettext.pl
+++ b/misc/translator/xgettext.pl
@@ -341,7 +341,8 @@ usage_error('You cannot specify both --convert-from and --files-from')
 
 if (defined $output && $output ne '-') {
     print STDERR "$0: Opening output file \"$output\"\n" if $verbose_p;
-    open(OUTPUT, ">$output") || die "$output: $!\n";
+        open(OUTPUT, ">$output") || die "$output: $!\n";
+    binmode( OUTPUT, ":utf8" );
 } else {
     print STDERR "$0: Outputting to STDOUT...\n" if $verbose_p;
     open(OUTPUT, ">&STDOUT");