Toyota's operating profit falls 29.5 percent in 1st half of FY2016

Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced Tuesday its financial results for the first half of fiscal year 2016, showing its operating profit shed 29.5 percent from the previous year, its first profit decline for the six-month period in five years.

The operating profit decreased from 1.5834 trillion yen (about 15.14 billion U.S. dollars) to 1.1168 trillion yen in the six-month period of April-September.

"Major factors contributing to the decrease included currency fluctuations of 565.0 billion yen offset by an increase of 220.0 billion yen due to cost reduction efforts," said the automaker.

"Despite the positive factors such as cost reduction and marketing efforts, operating income was down 466.5 billion yen compared to the first half of the last fiscal year, due to the significant impact of Yen appreciation," said TMC Executive Vice President Takahiko Ijichi while commenting on the results.

"Nevertheless, operating income excluding the overall impact of foreign exchange rates, as well as swap valuation gains and losses was up 200 billion yen," he said.

For the fiscal year of 2016 (April 1, 2016-March 31, 2017), Toyota forecast its operating profit at 1.7 trillion yen, down 40.4 percent from a year earlier.

The yen has been rising since late last year, which erodes profits of many Japanese companies like Toyota. Endit