TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp., battered by plunging global sales, reported its worst annual loss since its 1937 founding — and forecast even more red ink in the year ahead.
The world’s largest carmaker said Friday its net loss for the January-March quarter was $7.7 billion — bigger than General Motors reported for the same period.
That brings Toyota’s fiscal year loss to a larger-than-expected $4.4 billion, a dramatic reversal from the record profit of 2008.
With demand contracting in the U.S., Europe and Japan, Toyota is projecting losses for the fiscal year through March 2010 will grow to $5.55 billion.
Toyota has cut back on production but it hasn’t closed factories. It has slashed managerial pay and offered buyouts to thousands of American workers. In Japan, it has reduced the number of temporary workers from 9,200 last year to 3,000.
