Panasonic announces Q1 net loss of $560 mn

TOKYO: Japan's Panasonic Corp. announced on Monday a net loss of 52.98 billion yen (560 million dollars) for the April-June quarter, blaming weak sales of electronic goods during the recession.

Panasonic, which made a profit of 73.03 billion yen in the same period of 2008, left unchanged its forecast for a loss of 195 billion yen in the full business year to March 2010.

The group, which changed its corporate name from Matsushita Electric Industrial in October, is cutting 15,000 jobs and closing dozens of plants as it struggles to recover from its first annual loss in six years.