Japanese car giant Toyota on Tuesday revised its earnings forecast, saying it expected to see a record annual net profit thanks to a weaker yen and U. S. tax cuts. Japan’s top carmaker expects to bank a net profit of 2.4 trillion yen ($22 billion) for the fiscal
Japanese car giant Toyota on Tuesday revised its earnings forecast, saying it expected to see a record annual net profit thanks to a weaker yen and U. S. tax cuts.
Japan’s top carmaker expects to bank a net profit of 2.4 trillion yen ($22 billion) for the fiscal year to March 2018, up from its November estimate of 1.95 trillion yen.
Annual sales are now forecast at 29 trillion yen, up from an earlier projection of 28.5 trillion, the Prius maker said.
In May, the company announced its first drop in annual profit for five years, which it blamed on the cost of customer incentives in the key U. S. market.
Toyota said net profit rose 40.5 percent to 2.0 trillion yen for the nine months to December, on sales of 21.8 trillion yen, which were up 8.1 percent.
Toyota officials said the profits were the result of several factors, including a weaker yen, U. S. tax cuts and company cost-cutting measures.
“In the U. S., the corporate tax cuts of 2017 resulted in a reduction in income taxes of 291 billion yen,” helping push up net income, senior managing director Masayoshi Shirayanagi told reporters.
Executive vice president Koji Kobayashi said Toyota was “seeing the benefits coming from cost reductions faster than I thought.
