Upbeat forecast from Toyota

Toyota, Japan’s biggest carmaker, has said it sees its full-year profit being much better than it had previously predicted.

That is because of cut costs, reduced spending and Japanese government schemes intended to boost vehicle sales.

It now expects operating profit for the year to the end of March to be the equivalent of 2.7 billion euros, which is 42 percent down on last year.

Those results were impacted by the stronger yen and disruption to production and supply chains from widespread flooding in Thailand late last year. That battered Toyota just as it was recovering from the March earthquake in Japan.

Toyota reckons the Thai floods will cost it 240,000 vehicles in lost production worldwide, allowing General Motors and Volkswagen to overtake it in 2011 vehicle sales.

With the two natural disasters mostly behind it, Toyota expects its sales to jump by more than a fifth this year to a record 9.58 million vehicles, including subsidiaries Daihatsu and Hino. All its car factories, bar Thailand, are back at full speed.

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