NTT Corp. on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of 233.36 billion yen for the business year to March 31, marking a dramatic turnaround from its 834.67 billion yen group net loss in fiscal 2001.

But the telecommunications giant's group sales slipped 0.9 percent from a year earlier to 10.92 trillion yen due to decreased revenues from fixed-line telephone services, company officials said.

Norio Wada, president of the NTT group's holding company, said cuts to the operating costs of its two regional companies -- NTT East Corp. and NTT West Corp. -- helped the firm return to profitability.