Toyota sees quarterly profit, sales rise, lowers forecast

TOKYO (AP) - Toyota reported a nearly 4% increase in fiscal first quarter profit on improved sales, but Japan's top automaker slightly lowered its full year forecasts because of unfavorable currency exchange rates.

Toyota Motor Corp.'s said Friday its April-June profit totaled 682.9 billion yen ($6.4 billion), up from 657.3 billion yen the same period last year. Quarterly sales rose 3.8% to 7.65 trillion yen ($71 billion).

Consolidated vehicle sales for the period totaled 2.3 million, an increase of more than 67,000 vehicles from the previous year.

By region, vehicle sales rose in Japan, the rest of Asia and Europe but fell in North America, according to the maker of the Prius hybrid, Corolla subcompact and Lexus luxury brand.

Toyota lowered its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2020 to 2.15 trillion yen ($20 billion), down from its earlier forecast for 2.25 trillion yen ($21 billion) profit.

The new forecast is still an improvement over the 1.88 trillion yen ($18 billion) earned for the fiscal year ended in March.

The lowered profit came from the negative impact of changes in foreign exchange rate assumptions, said Operating Officer Kenta Kon. The company will counter that with cost cuts to boost profitability, he said.