Toyota has said it expects its business to suffer a ‘wide-ranging, significant and serious’ hit because of the coronavirus pandemic (Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD)

Tokyo (AFP) – Toyota on Tuesday said it expected a 79.5 percent drop in its annual operating profit this fiscal year as it suffers “significant” fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Japanese auto giant declined to give a net profit forecast for the fiscal year to March 2021 but noted that the impact of the crisis on its business was “wide-ranging, significant and serious”.

The company now expects an annual operating profit of 500 billion yen ($4.6 billion), down 79.5 percent from the 2.44 trillion yen logged in the past year to March.

Toyota forecast a near-20 percent drop in annual sales to 24 trillion yen, compared with 29.93 trillion yen achieved in the past fiscal year.

The company’s net profit for the past year to March came to 2.076 trillion yen, up 10.3 percent on the year.

“As for the global economy going forward, there is concern that there will be a sharp decline in many countries and regions due to the impact of COVID-19,” Toyota said in a statement.

“While we assume that the global automobile market as a whole will gradually recover after bottoming out during April and June of 2020… the impact of COVID-19 is wide-ranging, significant and serious, and it is expected that weakness will continue for the time being.”

Disclaimer: Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Source: AFP.