Japan's Panasonic Corp announced Friday the year's net loss of 378.96 billion yen (3.95 billion dollars) due to the economic downturn and warned its bottom line would stay in the red this year. The group, which is in the midst of cutting 15,000 jobs and closing dozens of plants, said it expected to lose 195 billion yen for the current business year to March because of weak sales and restructuring costs.
The figures are the latest in a slew of grim earnings results from Japan's high-tech heavyweights, which are reeling from a slump in exports. Panasonic said its revenue fell 14.4 percent in the year to March to 7.77 trillion yen, hit by sluggish demand for plasma televisions, digital cameras, semiconductors and home appliances.
Operating profit plunged 86 percent to 72.9 billion yen. The group, which changed its corporate name from Matsushita Electric Industrial in October, expects its sales to slump 10 percent this year, but it aims to boost operating profit by three percent to 75 billion yen.
Other Japanese electronics makers are also in the red because of the global economic crisis, which has sapped demand for their products and pushed up the value of the yen, reducing their export earnings. Sony announced Thursday its first annual loss in 14 years while Hitachi announced earlier in the week it went more than eight billion dollars into the red, the biggest ever deficit posted by a Japanese manufacturer.
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