Panasonic announces 3.95 bn dollar annual loss

TOKYO: Japan's Panasonic Corp announced on Friday an annual 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 a net loss of 195 billion yen for the current business year to March because of weak sales and restructuring costs.