Japan's largest car company, Toyota Motor Corp, was expected to run into the red this fiscal year in its first annual operating loss ever, according to the Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Friday.
The worldwide financial crisis and its resulting drop in car sales as well as the rapid rise of the value of the Japanese currency, the yen, were named as the main reasons, according to the story, which did not cite sources.
An operating profit was expected for the Toyota group of companies, which includes Daihatsu and Hino Motors, although it was expected to be substantially lower than last year, the report said.
Toyota plans a year-ending press conference Monday at its headquarters in Nagoya, at which it was also expected to substantially sink its earnings forecast.
Toyota in early November drastically reduced its expectations for its current business year, which ends March 31.
The prognosis for the group's earnings was reduced to 600 billion yen (6.7 billion dollars), a billion yen less than had been earlier projected. But the financial situation has considerably worsened since then, the Nikkei noted.
For Toyota alone, the automaker had forecast in November a profit of 140 billion yen, 87.4 per cent lower than last year.