Honda Motor Co. announced Tuesday that it suffered a 19.6 percent decline in pretax profit on a group basis during the April-September period to 226.4 billion yen.
The nation's third-largest automaker said its group sales during the first half of fiscal 1999 slipped 3.2 percent to 3.03 trillion yen -- the first decline in four years. Its operating profit fell 22.8 percent to 229.5 billion yen, while net profit declined 13.8 percent to 136.4 billion yen.
Honda did have strong car sales in North America and brisk demand for minicars in the domestic market. But that wasn't enough to overcome the overall decline -- and the strengthening yen.