Sony Corporation, which sells just about anything from consumer electronics to life insurance policies, forecasted an operating profit of $2.6 billion USD (or 200 billion yen) from now until March 2012—compared with analysts’ consensus of $2.3 billion USD (or 175.5 billion yen).

Sony’s Chief Financial Officer Masaura Kato said, “Looking at Europe and North America overall, the outlook is murky.” He also said the company doesn’t have any reasons for optimism.

Since Sony’s parts need to be procured from Japan and other parts of Asia, Kato also said that switching more product assembly to the euro zone wouldn’t prove to be an effective way of combating the rise in yen. Sony’s CFO said the company has already taken 75 percent of its manufacturing overseas and would have difficulty raising that figure.

The following are additional signs of economic problems in Europe and Asia:

• Consumer confidence fell in Europe last September.
• Unemployment is on the rise in Ireland and Spain and austerity programs across southern Europe.
• The Nikkei average rose by 1.9 percent.
• Sony’s shares have fallen more than 40 percent since the financial year began on April 1 (versus a 10 percent fall in the Nikkei average).
• The Nikkei average is similar to the Dow Jones average, and it is the most widely quoted average for products in Japan.

Kato mentioned that his company was constantly working on improving profitability in Sony TV division. However, Sony’s TV division is currently struggling to compete with some of the big rivals such as Samsung.

In the past few years, Sony has already sold off TV factories in Spain, Slovakia and Mexico.

Sony outsources over half of its production to companies like Hon Hai Precision Industry. It retains four TV plants of its own in Japan, Brazil, China, and Malaysia.

Analysts are saying that Sony may need to slash personnel costs and consider pulling out of the highly competitive business.