Toyota Motor Corp. on Wednesday reported a 22 percent rise in group pretax profit to 972.2 billion yen for the business period that ended in March, the highest ever posted by a Japanese company.
Toyota attributed its record-setting performance, achieved despite the slowing Japanese and U.S. economies, to brisk sales in domestic and overseas markets and efforts to reduce costs.
Strong sales of new vehicles, including the luxury sedan Celsio, helped compensate for losses derived from the yen's appreciation against the euro and the dollar in the early part of the 2000 business year, officials of the nation's top automaker said.