The plunging U.S. sales and slowing global economy have been a cause of worry to the U.S. automakers, said Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford Motor Co. The Ford chief believes that the overall U.S. auto sale would not recover before late 2009 or possibly 2010. However, he is confident in Ford’s current liquidity.

“We know the situation in the United States, and most people are projecting maybe 1.5 percent GDP growth this year, but clearly it’s a slowdown,” said Mulally at the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit. “We’re seeing a slowdown in Asia Pacific and we’re seeing a slowdown in Europe …. That clearly affects the automobile industry worldwide. It’s a tough business situation for us worldwide.”

“We anticipated about a year and a half ago that the slowdown in the United States would continue, and just as prudent business we decided to go to the markets early and secure the financing that we needed,” he said.

“We raised not only the amount of money we thought we needed in the near-term for restructuring … but also an extra amount of money to accommodate a slowdown into the U.S. economy. So our liquidity going into this year turned out to be very, very good.”

The Detroit Big 3- General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler LLC is all set to pursue the low interest federal loan of $25 billion. Mulally hopes the government help would enable automakers to develop and build more vehicles with higher fuel economy.

However, the Ford chief declined to mention how much funding the company needs. The company is in the process of retooling some of its North American truck plants to build cars in response to the sharp shift in demand towards more fuel-efficient vehicles.

According to Mulally, Ford will remain committed to maintaining its Mercury brand and its plans to continue to streamline its distribution system. “We will see more and more integration of them and also more differentiation on the parts that people see and touch which will be even a better value proposition for the customers,” he said.

Ford’s U.S. sales were down 15 percent through August, as compared to an 11 percent industry decline overall.

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