Honda Motor lifted profit forecasts for the current financial year as the Japanese carmaker continued to improve profitability, it said on Friday.
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Japan’s third-largest carmaker upgraded its operating profit outlook for the year ending March 31 to 730 billion yen (6.6 billion dollars) from 690 billion yen estimated three months ago.
Honda also revised upwards its net profit forecast to 595 billion yen from 575 billion yen projected in November, while sales are predicted at 15.15 trillion yen, up slightly from 15.05 trillion yen.
The carmaker said the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China was not reflected in its forecasts for the year.
For the last quarter of 2019, Honda booked a net profit of 116.4 billion yen, down 30.8 per cent from the year earlier, while its operating profit were down 2.1 per cent to 166.6 billion yen.
Sales declined 5.7 per cent year-on-year to 3.75 trillion yen in the quarter, the carmaker said.
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Honda sold a total of 1.24 million vehicles globally in the October to December period, down 11.4 per cent from the year before, it said.