Toyota Q4 loss $6.9 bln, sees tougher year ahead

TOKYO, May 8 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it lost $6.9 billion in the final quarter and forecast increasing losses this financial year as sales continue to tumble, keeping dozens of its factories underused.

The world's biggest automaker reported a January-March operating loss of 682.5 billion yen ($6.9 billion), versus a 396.7 billion yen profit a year earlier but in line with a consensus estimate for a loss of 689 billion yen in a survey of 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

It lost a net 765.8 billion yen in the fourth quarter, down from a profit of 316.8 billion yen a year ago.

The global economic downturn that has battered demand for cars and pushed U.S. rival Chrysler [CBS.UL] into bankruptcy has hit Toyota badly as it went from rapid expansion to overcapacity almost overnight.

Toyota posted its first-ever consolidated operating loss last year after a record profit the year before.

For the year to next March, the maker of Prius hybrid cars forecast an operating loss of 850 billion yen. A survey of 20 analysts by Thomson Reuters had previously given an average forecast for a 387 billion yen loss. [ID:nT27060]

Shares of Toyota have risen 39 percent so far this year, underperforming a 47 percent rise on Tokyo's transport sub-index . (Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, editing by Ian Geoghegan)