Japan’s third biggest automaker, Honda, reported on Wednesday its profit fell 7.5% in its second fiscal quarter, saying the strong yen hurt its earnings even though its revenue rose, the Associated Press (AP) said.
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However, earnings for the first half of its fiscal year edged up, and Honda raised its earnings forecast for the year.
The automaker said it earned 127.12 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in the July-September quarter, down from 137.36 billion yen the same quarter last year.
Group sales in the quarter grew 3.8% to 2.094 trillion yen ($20 billion) from 2.017 trillion yen a year ago, AP said.
According to the report, for the six months ended September 30,Honda said it earned 241.38 billion yen ($2.3 billion) up from 239.18 billion yen a year earlier. First half sales rose 3.5% to 4.167 trillion yen ($39 billion) from 4.025 trillion yen a year earlier.
Honda raised its profit outlook for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005, to 447 billion yen ($4 billion), from its forecast in July for a profit of 417 billion yen ($3.9 billion) for the year. The forecast is about 4% below Honda’s 464 billion yen net profit for the last fiscal year, the Associated Press noted.
Honda said it now expects sales to total 8.69 trillion yen ($81 billion), up 6.5% from 8.16 trillion yen the previous fiscal year. Honda had forecast sales of 8.56 trillion yen in July, AP added.
