Toyota 9-month net profit falls but hikes annual outlook

Toyota said today that net profit in the nine months to the end of December fell by almost a quarter on-year but revised up its full-year forecast thanks to foreign exchange gains and a pick-up in sales.

The Japanese auto giant, which lost its crown as the world's top-selling automaker in 2016, said net profit fell 24 percent to 1.43 trillion yen (USD 12.7 billion) from 1.89 trillion yen a year earlier.

The maker of the Prius hybrid forecast a full-year net profit of 1.7 trillion yen, up from its earlier estimate of 1.55 trillion yen. That was already up from an earlier 1.45 trillion outlook.

Toyota said in a statement that the upward revision was mainly "based on the current trend of financial results, due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates and the upward revision of our sales plans".

Japanese exporters have enjoyed a boost since the November election of Donald Trump as US president, with expectations his big-spending, tax-cutting plans would fire inflation and force the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates.

However, the latest forecast is far below the record 2.31 trillion yen net profit in the year to March 2016.