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AUTOSHOW-Toyota says credit crisis could hit sales

Wed Oct 1, 2008 2:29pm EDT

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PARIS, Oct 1 (Reuters) - A senior board member at Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said the current global financial crisis could cause another review of Toyota's global sales target.

Mitsuo Kinoshita said at the Paris auto show on Wednesday that Toyota had global sales targets of 9.5 million units in 2008 and 9.7 million in 2009.

The credit crunch was hurting consumer confidence and causing people to postpone decisions on buying cars, he said.

Toyota Europe Chief Executive Tadashi Arashima also had a cautious outlook on the automotive sector's prospects.

He expected the western European car market to drop 8 percent in 2008 and added that the European market had "not seen a bottom yet."

Chief Operating Officer Thierry Dombreval added: "I do not believe in a recovery. I think 2009 will be down again. I expect minus 10 percent for western Europe and plus 5 for Eastern Europe but that means a big drop for Russia where growth was much faster up to now."

In August, Toyota posted a 28 percent drop in first-quarter net profit. (Reporting by Marcel Michelson; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)



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