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Toyota forecast deepens gloom over global economy
AFP - 2 hours 17 minutes ago
TOKYO (AFP) - - The economic crisis hit Japan's iconic Toyota auto company Monday as it forecast its first ever operating loss, heightening the sense of gloom over the world economy despite a slew of stimulus plans.
Toyota, which vies with GM for the crown of the world's largest automaker, said it faced an "unprecedented crisis" and expected an operating loss of 150 billion yen (1.69 billion dollars) -- its first since March 1941.
It follows the financial troubles plaguing the United States where General Motors and Chrysler, two of the US Big Three automakers, are on the verge of collapse.
Finance leaders predicted more doom and gloom for 2009, warning it could be even worse than this year despite frantic government measures to stem the tide of bad data.
"Our forecasts are already very dark, but they will be even darker if not enough fiscal stimulus is implemented," International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.
"I can see that some measures have been announced, but I'm afraid it won't go far enough," he told BBC radio, predicting recession for advanced economies and slowing growth for emerging ones.
The IMF has called for global fiscal stimulus of about two percent of GDP, equivalent to roughly 1.2 trillion dollars.
Toyota said it was cutting back on production and investment as a slump in sales and a soaring yen wreaked havoc on its balance sheet, including freezing the launch of a new factory in Mississippi and slashing production in India.
The automaker has enjoyed hefty profits in recent years fuelled by demand overseas, notably in the United States, for its eco-friendly hybrid cars.
But demand has fallen sharply in the United States as the credit crisis at banks drags down the whole economy, and analysts said Toyota's revision showed all automakers are affected, not just Detroit's Big Three which also includes Ford.
Still, there was fresh movement to stop the meltdown, with a decision by US president-elect Barack Obama to add 500,000 jobs to a 2.5-million-job creation goal to kickstart the world's biggest and ailing economy.
Vice president-elect Joseph Biden also confirmed the Obama team was working on a second economic stimulus package.
According to US media, they want to craft a package worth between 675 and 775 billion dollars over two years, but which could swell to 850 billion dollars as it moves through the legislative process.
Biden said their package should "stem the hemorrhaging of the loss of jobs, and begin to create new jobs" while ensuring liquidity to financial markets.
It would be in addition to the 700-billion-dollar Wall Street rescue deal signed by President George W. Bush in October, but which has failed to reverse the plummetting US economy.
"There's going to be real significant investment, whether it's 600 billion dollars or more, or 700 billion dollars," Biden said.
"The clear notion is, it's a number no one thought about a year ago."
In Europe, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised to create at least 100,000 new jobs through a 10-billion-pound investment on infrastructure.
The money -- worth 11 billion euros or 15 billion dollars -- would be spent over the next two years on education, transport and other projects, Brown told the Mirror newspaper in an interview published Monday.
The Irish government said it was injecting 5.5 billion euros (7.6 billion dollars) to recapitalise three major banks: Anglo Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks.
At the weekend Japan also took action to jumpstart its economy, drafting a record 88.55-trillion-yen (1.01-trillion-dollar) budget for fiscal year 2009.
It reflects an emergency economic package Prime Minister Taro Aso announced earlier this month in a fresh effort to ward off a prolonged recession in the world's second-largest economy.
Meanwhile Russia allowed the ruble to weaken by around 1.5 percent against its benchmark currency basket Monday.
The ruble has been under strong downward pressure since the global economic crisis broke out because of a sharp drop in the price of oil, its main export, and huge outflows of capital.
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The Toyota logo on the bonnet of a brand new vehicle in Daly City, California, United States. The Japanese auto giant is set to forecast its first-ever operating loss this year as car sales slump around the world and a soaring yen eats into earnings.
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