Toyota 08/09 op profit to fall below $10 billion: report

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp's annual operating profit will miss the 1 trillion yen ($10.2 billion) mark, more than halving from a year earlier due to slow sales worldwide, the Tokyo Shimbun daily reported on Thursday.

That would be below an average projection of 1.34 trillion yen in a poll of 17 brokerages and against a record 2.27 trillion yen profit last year.

Toyota's shares fell 6.4 percent to 3,980 yen in early morning trade, in line with a sharp drop in other auto stocks. Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, is scheduled to announce its half-year earnings results at 3 p.m.

The Tokyo Shimbun had reported last month that Toyota's operating profit would be 1-1.2 trillion yen, but said weak sales in North America, Japan and Europe, as well as in emerging markets, were further hurting the outlook.

Toyota, until recently the envy of the industry with eight straight years of profit growth, has had to put factories on hold, let go temporary staff and offer unprecedented incentives to buyers as sales in the United States slid more than expected.

Toyota's U.S. sales are down 12 percent in the year-to-date, prompting the top Japanese automaker to lower its forecast there this week -- the second cut in four months.

The impact of the global credit crisis has spread to emerging markets such as China and India, throwing a wrench in automakers' plans to seek strong growth there to offset slumping sales in the big U.S. and European markets.

($1=97.89 Yen)

(Reporting by Sachi Izumi and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Michael Watson)