Tokyo - Elpida Memory Inc suffered an annual net loss in fiscal 2008 due to the global economic crisis that led to declining demand and chip-price falls, the company said Tuesday.

Japan's largest maker of dynamic random access memory chips expanded its net loss to 178.87 billion yen (1.82 billion dollars) in the previous business year that ended March 31 from 23.54 billion yen the year before.

Sales also fell 18.4 per cent to 331.05 billion yen despite an increase in chip orders, Elpida said, because average chip prices more than halved in the year and the yen advanced against the US dollar.

Operating loss expanded to 147.39 billion yen from a loss of 24.94 billion yen the previous year as sale price declines outpaced the firm's efforts to cut costs, the company said.

Elpida did not release forecasts for the current fiscal year. (dpa)