Stuttgart, Germany - Luxury sports carmaker Porsche SE launched a 100-million-euro (129-million-dollar) cost-cutting program Friday after the global economic slowdown triggered a dramatic slump in its sales.

The manufacturer of 911, Boxster, Caymen and Cayenne sports cars, Porsche said sales will drop by 27.3 per cent to 34,000 vehicles during the first half of the company's
2008-2009 fiscal year.

Speaking at the at the group's annual shareholders meeting in Stuttgart, Porsche Wendelin Wiedeking announcing further production cuts.

"Porsche has been unable to escape the overall downtrend in the global car industry," the company said with auto sector hit hard by the world-wide economic slump that gained momentum during the last months of 2008.

However, speaking at the shareholders' meeting Wiedeking ruled out job cuts or introducing shorter working hours to cope with the economic crisis that has resulted in a shakeout in the financial sector and resulted in lay offs in financial centres around the world.

But the group said it plans to halt production at a key German plant for another 19 days.

"It is fair to say that operating earnings in the first half of the year were down by the same extent as the company's sales," Wiedeking told shareholders.

But Porsche said it expects gains from its holding in Volkswagen AG will mean that six-month earnings will be higher than the 1.66- billion-euro pretax earnings it ran up in the same period last year.

Earlier this month Stuttgart-based Porsche secured a majority 50.8-per-cent stake in Volkswagen, which is Europe's biggest carmaker. (dpa)