Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday its net group profit grew 8.8 percent to a record 464.3 billion yen in fiscal 2003, due in part to robust sales overseas.

But the nation's third-largest automaker forecast net profit to fall 16 percent to 390 billion yen in the current year, due to the strengthening yen.

Net profit was at a record high for the third consecutive year.

Overall sales increased 2.4 percent to 8.16 trillion yen, a record high for the fourth straight year.

But operating profit, a gauge of a firm's regular activities excluding financial and one-time items, fell 17.2 percent to 600.1 billion yen. Honda attributed the decline to the yen's appreciation against the dollar and an increase in general and administrative expenses.

The strengthening yen has cost the firm 101 billion yen. A stronger yen hurts exporters by reducing the value of repatriated earnings.

In terms of sales volume, the automaker's global sales gained 3.3 percent to a record 2.98 million units, due to thriving sales in the United States, Europe and Asia.

In the U.S., car sales rose 2.4 percent to 1.56 million units, driven by rising sales of the Element light truck model and the new Acura TL luxury sedan.

In Europe, Honda's car sales surged 11.6 percent to 231,000 units.

In Asian countries such as China and Malaysia, it sold 341,000 vehicles, up 66.3 percent.

Domestic sales meanwhile fell 15.7 percent to 716,000 units.