Toyota Expecting loss.

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Monday, December 22, 2008,

Updated at: 0800 PST, Monday, December 22, 2008

NAGOYA, Japan: Toyota Motor Corporation is expected Monday to announce its first-ever operating loss this year as car sales slump around the world and a soaring yen eats into earnings.

The Nikkei business daily said Toyota is likely to book 100 billion yen (1.1 billion dollars) in operating losses for the second half of the current fiscal year.

It would result in Toyota's first annual operating loss since the company began releasing annual earnings figures in March 1941, according to the Nikkei. The company holds a press conference at 0630 GMT.

Toyota is also considering cutting dividend payments for the first time since 1949, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper said.

Toyota shares were down in morning trade ahead of the announcement, losing 2.76 percent to 2,820 yen.

The global financial crisis has pressed Japanese automakers to downgrade earnings, lower production, cut jobs and pull out of motor sports en masse in the past few weeks.

In the United States, GM and Chrysler -- two of the Big Three -- are on the verge of collapse, leading the White House to offer an emergency lifeline.

Japanese automakers, which rely heavily on sales overseas, have also been hit by a soaring yen that makes exports less competitive.

Toyota has already announced plans to cut 3,000 temporary jobs at its domestic plants, which will lower production in response to worsening sales.

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