Toyota forecasts 34.9% drop in net profit

The fall reflects the full-blown impact of high tariffs imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Toyota said that its operating profit would be pushed down by 180 billion yen over the two months through this month.

On the other hand, the automaker's consolidated sales in the latest year that ended in March this year rose for the fourth consecutive year to hit a record high of 48,036.7 billion yen, up 6.5 pct from the previous year.

Although Toyota experienced hiccups in group auto production in Japan due to a test fraud scandal, it enjoyed the sales growth thanks to robust hybrid vehicle sales mainly in North America and Europe amid the yen's weakness.

Its operating profit decreased 10.4 pct to 4,795.5 billion yen, and its net profit by 3.6 pct to 4,765 billion yen. The drops were likely due to rising personnel costs and expenses related to the testing scandal at subsidiary Hino Motors Ltd.