Toyota projects 1st ever operating loss

It’s the first such loss since Toyota began reporting operating figures in 1941

AP

NAGOYA, JAPAN. Toyota Motor Corp. slashed its earnings forecast again Monday, projecting that it would report its first operating loss ever for the fiscal year through March on waning global demand and a surging yen.

"The change that has hit the world economy is of a critical scale that comes once in a hundred years," President Katsuaki Watanabe said at the company's Nagoya office. The drop in vehicle sales over the last month was "far faster, wider and deeper than expected."

Japan's top automaker forecast an operating loss of US$ 1.66 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2009 — the first such loss since Toyota began reporting operating figures in 1941. Operating income reflects a company's core business performance and does not include income taxes and other expenses. Last fiscal year, Toyota had an operating profit.

Sinking sales in the U.S. in the wake of the financial crisis have dealt a heavy blow to Japanese automakers. But Watanabe said that emerging markets, which had held up in the beginning, were also slowing down now.

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