Stockholm, March 7 (IANS): The Swedish energy giant Vattenfall has announced that the company was going to cut around 2,500 jobs before the end of next year.

The company's operations in Germany were most affected by the job reduction plan where it had to let go 1,500 employees, reported Xinhua citing the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).

The company also planned to reduce 500 jobs in the Netherlands, 400 jobs inside Sweden and another 50 in other countries.

The present job reduction was mostly due to the continuous low demand of electricity in the market which dragged down the price of electricity.

Olof Gertz, personnel director of the company described the present market as a "entirely updated energy market" where there was an excess of electricity.

"The new circumstances require us to further improve our efficiency and to strengthen our financial position," said Oystein Loseth, head of Vattenfall.

The company planned to cut the costs by 4.5 billion Swedish kronor (about $700 million) this year and next year which meant fewer investments and also the possibility to sell its power station in Denmark, and part of its power plant in Lippendorf, Germany.

Vattenfall is one of the largest energy companies in Northern Europe.