A stronger yen and the nation's stagnant economy continued to plague all Japan's five major automakers except Toyota Motor Corp. in fiscal 1999, which ended March 31, according to their annual earnings reports released by Friday.
Mazda Motor Corp. reported Friday that its consolidated pretax profits hit 6.1 billion yen in fiscal 1999, down 86.8 percent from the previous year, due mainly to the yen's appreciation. Company officials said that group sales were 2.16 trillion yen, up 5.1 percent from a year earlier.
Consolidated operating profits also dropped 59.8 percent to 25.1 billion yen and consolidated net profits fell 32.4 percent to 26.2 billion yen. On an unconsolidated basis, Mazda's sales increased 0.8 percent to 1.47 trillion yen but pretax profits dropped 84.5 percent to 7.7 billion yen.