TOKYO, Dec. 4 -- Japanese companies' pretax earnings in the July-September quarter went down 22.4 percent from the same period of last year, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.

It was the biggest drop in about seven years, the ministry said, blaming the global economic slowdown.

Total corporate pretax profits for the quarter totaled $111.3 billion, the fight straight quarterly loss, Kyodo news service reported.

The report said Japan's corporate capital spending also contracted 13 percent during the same quarter to $130.5 billion.

"Companies' profits were squeezed by declining sales and increasing raw material costs," a ministry official said. "The results confirmed that Japan's economy has been weakening against the background of the global economic slowdown."(UPI)