Toyota cuts forecast on flagging US demand

Toyota Motor Corp, the world's second-largest carmaker, lowered its forecast for 2009 auto sales growth to 2.1 percent from 5.6 percent as record fuel prices and slowing economies damp global demand.

Sales will climb to 9.7 million vehicles next year from an estimated 9.5 million this year, the company said in a statement yesterday. It previously forecast sales to rise to 10.4 million from 9.85 million.

The automaker will reduce production in the United Kingdom and Poland, adding to cuts in the United States. Toyota lowered the target for North America, its biggest market, by 10 percent as drivers buy fewer sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks because of gasoline prices that have reached $4 a gallon.