Toyota to post yearly operating loss

NAGOYA, Japan, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. is expected to report an operating loss for the first full year since 1949 amid slumping sales of small cars, sources say.

The unconsolidated loss would be for the current fiscal year that ends in March and is being exacerbated by the yen's sharp appreciation against the dollar, sources told the Japanese Kyodo News agency Saturday.

Toyota is likely to make a consolidated operating profit for fiscal 2008, albeit significantly reduced from the year before, the sources said. The automaker is expected to announce its unconsolidated earnings projections next week.

In November, the company announced it expected an unconsolidated operating profit of $1.56 billion for fiscal 2008, but since then Toyota has been hit by a slump in small vehicle sales.

Meanwhile, Toyota's 63,000-member workers' union is considering demanding an average monthly base wage hike of more than $44 in next year's annual "shunto" labor-management wage negotiations, Kyodo reported.