Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday its group net profit in the October-December period rose 3.5 percent from a year earlier to 296.5 billion yen, clearing the way for its profit for the year to March to exceed 1 trillion yen for a second consecutive year.
The nation's largest automaker's brisk performance was backed by lower costs and higher global sales.
Toyota raised its global sales projection for fiscal 2004 to 7.29 million, up 70,000 units from November, mainly due to higher success in North America and Japan. But the automaker is doing well everywhere.