HispanicBusiness

Nissan Motor Co predicted its net profit for the current financial year would rise 22.6 per cent to 420 billion yen (4.42 billion dollars) on strong sales and the depreciation of the Japanese currency, the carmaker said Friday.

Nissan also projected an operating profit of 610 billion yen for the year to the end of March, up 16.5 per cent from 523.5 billion yen for the year that ended in March, while sales were estimated at 10.37 trillion yen.

Japan's second-largest carmaker by volume expected global sales for the current financial year to climb 7.8 per cent to a new record of 5.3 million units.

Net profit for the financial year that ended in March edged up 0.3 per cent to 342.4 billion yen, Nissan said.

Nissan said its global sales for the year edged down 0.4 per cent to 4.86 million vehicles.

Sales in the United States, however, rose 5.4 per cent to 1.14 million units for the year and the country became the carmaker's largest market, while those in China dropped 11.9 per cent to 1.12 million amid a territorial spat between Tokyo and Beijing.

In the January-to-March quarter, Nissan posted a net profit of 110 billion yen, up 46.1 per cent from 75.3 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

The carmaker also said its operating profit in the first quarter of 2013 jumped 47.7 per cent to 174.4 billion yen from 118.1 billion yen the previous year, while sales were up 6 per cent to 2.87 trillion yen.

The Japanese yen has declined about 25 per cent to the US dollar since November. A weaker yen makes Japanese products more competitive overseas and improve repatriated earnings.