Tokyo  - Toyota Motor Corp, the world's largest automaker, slashed its earnings prognosis for a third time on Friday, now predicting a net loss of 350 billion yen (3.8 billion dollars) for the business year that ends March 31.

The worldwide downturn has hit Toyota harder than expected. Only two months ago, the automaker had predicted net profits of 50 billion yen for the year after reporting record earnings of 1.72 trillion yen the previous year. (dpa)