Ford Reports 78.7% Earnings Drop : Auto maker: The decline was even worse than analysts had expected as worldwide car operations suffered.

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. today reported a 78.7% drop in third-quarter earnings because of big losses in worldwide auto operations and slumping profits in its financial services group.

The decline at the No. 2 auto maker, to $101.7 million or 22 cents a share, was worse than expected. The drop would have been even more drastic if Ford had not made one-time accounting changes in the quarter that inflated the earnings by $86.9 million.

Analysts said as recently as last week that they expected Ford’s earnings to be a little more than half of the $477.1 million, or $1.03 a share, the company earned in the third quarter of last year.

On Monday, No. 3 Chrysler Corp. reported a $214-million loss for the third quarter--its largest operational loss since early 1981, when the company was battling back from near bankruptcy.

General Motors Corp. will report its earnings Wednesday.

Ford said it lost $89 million on normally profitable overseas automotive business, which was particularly worrisome since that part of the firm has helped carry the company’s less-profitable North American operations. During the quarter last year, Ford’s overseas operations earned $324 million.

The company said it made $50 million on its U.S. automotive operations, but that was offset by the accounting change for a net $17-million loss.

Ford’s financial services group, which includes its consumer financing arm among other operations, earned $141 million during the third quarter of this year, down 25.8% from the $190 million the group earned during the same period last year.

Ford’s earnings came on $23 billion in revenues, up 13.9% from revenues of $20.2 billion during the July-September period last year.

For the first nine months of this year, Ford earned $1.4 billion, or $2.99 a share, compared to $3.52 billion, or $7.51 a share, during the same period in 1989.

Revenues for the period rose to $73.5 billion from $72 billion in revenues in the first nine months of 1989.

“We believe that financial results will remain weak in the near term, reflecting a continuation of the adverse factors affecting this quarter’s results,” a statement by Ford Chairman Harold Poling and President Philip Benton said. “Despite the near-term pressure on profits, we at Ford remain committed to an aggressive capital-spending plan.”