Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Friday it posted a group net profit of 64.41 billion yen for the first half of fiscal 2005, a year-on-year increase of 15 percent.

Performance was buoyed by robust demand for plasma display panel TVs and digital cameras.

The Osaka-based maker of the Panasonic brand said its net profit topped the 60 billion yen mark during the April-September period for the first time in 14 years. Revenue fell 1 percent to 4.26 trillion yen.

"We had been expecting a fall in both revenue and profits. We are quite satisfied with the results," Tetsuya Kawakami, the firm's senior managing director, told a news conference.

During the reporting period, PDP TV sales rose by 81 percent to 183.3 billion, yen while those of digital cameras more than doubled to 55.5 billion yen.

The strong performance of these digital consumer electronics products helped offset a sharp decline in sales of more conventional items, such as cathode-ray tube TVs and analog audio products.

"It would be scary to imagine what would have happened if we did not have PDP TVs and digital cameras," Kawakami said.

The company said traditional home appliances, such as air conditioners and refrigerators, also performed well.

Despite the better-than-expected first-half results, the firm left its full-year forecast intact, saying it will wait until the announcement of its third quarter results, given the uncertainty of the global economic environment.