Nissan forecasts $2.6 billion loss, slashes 20,000 jobs

Nissan is the latest carmaker to succumb to the effects of the global economic crisis, with the company announcing today its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2008 and a massive round of job cuts. In the third quarter, the consolidated net loss after tax came to ¥83.2 billion ($0.81 billion), compared to net income of ¥132.2 billion ($1.28 billion) from the same period a year ago. Globally, Nissan sold a total of 2,633,000 vehicles in the first three quarters of the year, down 3% compared with last year. According to the company, the poor performance was driven by the severe downturn in the global economy in the second half of the financial year as well as the negative impact of the strong yen.