Ford posts first annual profit since 2005

Auto giant Ford Motor reported a full-year profit for the first time in four years at $2.7 billion in 2009, driven primarily by cost-cutting measures and reduction in debt.

The company's yearly profit was a whopping $17.5 billion improvement from the previous year's net loss of $14.76 billion, it said in a statement.

"This marks the company's first full year of positive net income since 2005," it stated.

The company said the full year profit was "driven in part by favourable net pricing, structural cost reductions, net gains on debt reduction actions and strong Ford Credit results".

For the fourth quarter ended December 2009, Ford reported profit of $868 million compared to a net loss of $5.9 billion.

Further, Ford's strong products drove full-year market share gains in North America, South America and Europe as well as continued improvements in transaction prices and margins, the statement said.

Ford's Q4 revenue was $35.4 billion, up $6.4 billion from the year-ago period, while for the full year revenue declined to $118.3 billion over the previous year.