“Fiat” registered drop in profit in last quarter of year 2008 by nearly 70%

Italian automobile manufacturer "Fiat" announced today (January 22, 2009) that it had registered the drop in profit by 69.8% in the fourth quarter of year 2008 due to reduced demand in Western Europe and economic deceleration in South America.

Net profit in the last three months of last year amounted to 180m EUR (232.38m USD), while the profit in the same period in 2007 amounted to 597m EUR.

The profit in 2008 was 16.2% smaller than in 2007, and it amounted to 1.72 billion EUR.