Hitachi saw its net losses rise to 58.1bn yen (£287m) for the 2007 financial year from 32.8bn yen (£162m) in 2006.

The Japanese electronics company said lower consumer spending, a rapid depreciation of the value of the yen against the US dollar and increased income taxes were behind the figures.

Hitachi’s revenue rose 10 per cent from 10,247.9bn yen (£50.1bn) to 11,226.7bn yen (£55.5bn), with operating income rising steeply by 89 per cent from 182.5bn yen (£902m) to 345.5bn yen (£1.7bn) in the same period.

The value of sales in the US market declined three per cent while revenues in Europe grew 24 per cent year-on-year.

The information and telecommunications systems division (including hard disk drives) grew sales by 12 per cent to 2,761bn yen (£13.7bn).

But revenue from digital media and consumer products division (including TVs) and the electronic devices division remained flat at 1,505bn yen (£7.4bn) and 1,293bn yen (£6.4bn) respectively.