Ford: U.S. economy slowing hurts auto industry

DETROIT (Reuters) - The U.S. and global economies are slowing down and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's LEH.N stunning bankruptcy only contributes to consumer unease, Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Alan Mulally said on Monday.

"With the credit situation and housing continuing to fall, clearly the industry associated with the automobile is clearly under stress because the consumers are stressed," Mulally said at the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit.

Mulally said the business situation was tough worldwide and the credit situation in the United States "very very volatile" due to the slowdown in the economy and falling house prices.

"Clearly this situation contributes to the slowing economic development and the consumer is the key to everything," Mulally said of the latest bank failure. "The consumer is being squeezed in the middle by credit on one side, unemployment in the United States, slowing economic development. It is going to take us a while to get through this."

Ford went to the capital markets to borrow more than $23 billion in 2006 and has adequate liquidity to pursue its broad restructuring plan, Mulally said.

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)

(Reporting by David Bailey and Scott Malone, editing by Dave Zimmerman)