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(BERLIN) - German insurance giant Allianz late Friday announced a net loss of 2 (two) billion euros in the third quarter of 2008 against a profit of 1.9 billion euros in the same period last year, admitting it was affected by the world financial crisis.

The Munich-based group distanced itself from its previous goals for this year and next.

Financial director Helmut Perlet said in a statement: "Without a complete improvement on the financial markets, we cannot achieve our goal of an operational result, outside the banking market, of nine billion euros this year and also in 2009.

"Reliable forecasts on upcoming results are hardly possible in this context" of financial crisis, he said.

Over the first nine months of this year Allianz notched up operational profits of 6.5 billion euros compared with 7.7 billions over the same period last year.

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