CHICAGO (Reuters) - Caterpillar Inc said on Monday that quarterly earnings fell more than 32 percent as the downturn that began in the United States metastasized into a full-blown global recession that hit sales of its earth-moving construction and mining equipment.
The company also warned that profit in 2009 would be under severe pressure and said that it had cut about 17,000 workers, and bought out 2,500 others, to cuts costs in the face of what it predicted would be the weakest year for economic growth since the end of World War Two.
The company reported a fourth-quarter profit of $661 million, or $1.08 a share, compared with $975 million, or $1.50 a share, last year.
Sales rose 6 percent to $12.92 billion.
Analysts, on average, expected the Peoria, Illinois-based company to report a profit of $1.28 a share on sales of $11.97 billion.
After shrugging off the downturn in U.S. housing that sparked the worldwide crisis, CATERPILLAR (CAT.NY)and other makers of bulldozers, dump trucks and excavators suddenly faced a world of challenges, including a drop in spending by their well-heeled energy and mining customers.
(Reporting by James Kelleher; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
