Japanese auto giant Toyota on Monday revised up its full-year forecast but warned of an uncertain outlook with the car industry bracing for possible protectionist policies under US President Donald Trump. The company, which lost its crown as the world's top-selling automaker last year, said a drop in the value of the yen had allowed it to lift its earnings, despite a fall in its nine-month net profit. It said net profit declined 24 percent to 1.43 trillion yen ($12.7 billion) from a year earlier, the first April-December decline in five years.
However, the maker of the Prius hybrid forecast a full-year net profit of 1.7 trillion yen, up from its earlier estimate of 1.55 trillion yen. That was already up from an earlier 1.45 trillion yen outlook. In a statement it said the upward revision was "based on the current trend of financial results, due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates and the upward revision of our sales plans".
Japanese exporters have enjoyed a boost since Trump's November election as the yen has weakened on expectations his big-spending, tax-cutting agenda would fire inflation and force the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates. A weaker yen boosts exporters' bottom lines by making their products relatively less expensive overseas, while inflating the value of their earnings abroad when repatriated.
Still, Toyota's latest forecast is far below the record 2.31 trillion yen net profit in the year to March 2016. The Japanese auto industry faces uncertainty over Trump's drive to support US firms over foreign imports, a stance that has raised fears of a possible global trade war. Toyota's vehicle sales in April-December ticked up to 7.7 million units, from 7.6 million, with increases in Japan, Europe and Asia, the statement said.
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