Toyota Motor Corp., Asia's biggest carmaker, on Friday raised its full-year profit forecast by 8 percent, as the weaker yen bolsters the value of Japanese cars sold overseas.
Net income in the year ending next March will probably climb to a six-year high of ¥1.48 trillion, and exceed the previous ¥1.37 trillion forecast, the carmaker said. For the quarter that ended in June, profit jumped 94 percent to ¥562.2 billion, beating the ¥441.2 billion average of four analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
While Toyota was outsold by General Motors Co., Japan's largest automaker earned triple GM's profit last quarter, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to weaken the yen benefit Japanese exporters by bolstering the value of products sold overseas. After years of battling a recall crisis, strong yen and natural disasters, analysts project the maker of the Camry sedan will earn record profit next fiscal year.