Toyota's quarterly profit up 32%

Toyota said today its April-June profit jumped 32

Toyota said today its April-June profit jumped 32.3 per cent to a record high for a quarter amid strong overseas sales and a weaker yen.

Group net profit at Toyota totalled 491.54 billion yen ($4.1 million) for the quarter through June, up from 371.50 billion yen the same period the previous year.

Quarterly sales rose 15.7 per cent on year to 6.523 trillion yen ($54.7 billion) from 5.638 trillion yen, putting Toyota's sales ahead of General Motor Corp.'s record quarterly sales of $54.5 billion, which the Detroit automaker marked in April-June in 2006.

Rising gas prices has lured buyers to Toyota's fuel-efficient models known for their good mileage, including the Prius, a gas-electric hybrid.

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The Japanese automaker kept its forecast for the full fiscal year ending March 2008 at 1.65 trillion yen ($13.85 billion) on sales of 25 trillion yen ($209.78 billion).

Its vehicle sales target for the full year at 8.89 million vehicles also stayed the same.

For the latest quarter, Toyota Motor Corp. sold 2.16 million vehicles worldwide, up 3.4 per cent from 2.09 million the same period a year earlier, the manufacturer said.

AP