Profits have fallen at Japanese car giant Toyota for the first time in five years, despite selling more cars than the year previously.
The group’s profit for the year to March 2017 fell by 21 percent to 1.83 trillion yen, suppressed by the strength of the Japanese currency. Toyota added that profits were likely to fall below expectations for 2018 too, based on a forecast that the yen will average around 105 to the US dollar in the year through to March 2018.
The group sold sold 10.25 million vehicles over the year, up from 10.19 million units a year earlier. However income from those sales was slightly down at 27.6 trillion yen. The results come just after Toyota announced that it had dropped the prices of its 2017 RAV4 cars; a base 2017 Toyota RAV4 has been discounted by $500 in the US.
The carmaker has struggled in the US market of late, seeing sales continue to fall after being overtaken by Volkswagen as the world’s biggest automaker. This comes despite Toyota’s pledge to invest $10 billion in the US over the next five years.
Toyota (TYO:7203) shares are currently down 0.88 percent at 6,081.00 (1108GMT).