By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer
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TOKYO (AP) — Toyota raised its full fiscal year profit forecast Tuesday after reporting its profit in the October to December quarter nearly doubled from the year before.
Toyota Motor Corp.’s third quarter profit totaled 1.36 trillion yen ($9 billion), up from 727.9 billion yen in the same period in 2022, as Japan’s top automaker recovered from losses suffered when the coronavirus pandemic slammed computer chip production.
In the first nine months of the fiscal year, Toyota reported a 3.9 trillion yen ($26 billion) profit, more than double what it racked up the previous fiscal year.
A favorable exchange rate also helped the maker of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and luxury models. A weak yen raises the value of overseas earnings when they are converted into yen. The dollar has been trading at about 148 yen lately, up from 140 yen a year ago.
Quarterly sales rose 23% to 12.04 trillion yen ($81 billion) from 9.75 trillion yen.
Toyota, based in central Japan’s Toyota city, raised its full fiscal year profit forecast to 4.5 trillion yen ($30 billion), from an earlier forecast of 3.95 trillion yen ($27 billion). It earned 2.45 trillion yen in profit in the year that ended in March 2023.
Toyota also raised its full year sales projection to 43.5 trillion yen ($294 billion), from an earlier estimate of 43 trillion yen ($290 billion). It was 37 trillion yen in the previous fiscal year.
