France

Renault to cut thousands of jobs

Article published on the 2008-07-24 Latest update 2008-07-24 17:34 TU

(Photo: AFP)

On Thursday the car company Renault announced that five thousand European jobs are to be cut. The company's chairman Carlos Ghosn said the expected sales in 2009 had been reduced from 3.3 million to 3 million and that sales growth for this year had been revised down from 10 per cent to five per cent.

The company also announced an increase in net profits for the first six months of this year.

Ghosn described the cost-cutting measures as "anticipatory measures". The sale price of Renault's vehicles will also be raised as the company attempts to combat increases in raw material prices.

The job cuts were severley criticized by labour unions who said the real number of job cuts would probably be higher. Renault currently has 47,000 employees in Europe.