Toyota upgrades full-year net profit forecast

The Toyota TS050 hybrid race car is on display at the Toyota booth during the Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo on October 25, 2017. / AFP / Toshifumi Kitamura/

TOKYOJapan (AFP) — Japanese car giant Toyota Tuesday logged a jump in its first-half net profits and revised up its bottom-line forecast for the whole year, citing a cheaper yen and cost-cutting efforts.

Japan’s number-one carmaker said its net profit gained 13.2 percent to 1.07 trillion yen ($9.4 billion) for the six months to September on sales of 14.2 trillion yen, up 8.6 percent.

The Prius maker now expects to bank a net profit of 1.95 trillion yen for the fiscal year to March 2018, up from an earlier estimate of 1.75 trillion yen.

Japanese exporters, led by automakers, have generally benefited from a relatively cheaper yen.

The dollar stood at 113.86 yen on Tuesday, sharply higher than 103.12 seen a year ago.

Last year, Toyota suffered its first drop in annual profit in five years, which it blamed on the cost of customer incentives in the key US market.