TOKYO, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Toyota Motor Corp. on Wednesday cut its group net profit forecast for the business year through March as despite fairly robust sales in some overseas markets, appraisal losses from its investments in affiliates have weighed on the automaker's bottom line.

The Aichi Prefecture-based automaker said that owing to its investment losses, it now projects a group net profit of 1.87 trillion yen (17.05 billion U.S. dollars) in the business year ending March 31.

This compares to a 2.3 trillion yen (20.97 billion U.S. dollars) earlier estimate made by the automaker.

The auto giant, however, left unchanged its group operating profit forecast at 2.4 trillion yen (21.89 billion U.S. dollars), with its sales projection for the full year estimated at 29.5 trillion yen (269.09 billion U.S. dollars).

The maker of the ubiquitous Corolla and Prius hybrid models raised its worldwide sales forecast for the fiscal year to a new record 10.55 million vehicles, an increase of 50,000 units.

Toyota said its group net profit in the April-December period stood at 1.42 trillion yen (12.95 billion U.S. dollars). This marks a 29.3 percent drop from a year earlier, based on Toyota's figures.

Its group operating profit, however, increased 9.5 percent to 1.94 trillion yen (17.69 billion U.S. dollars) on sales of 22.48 trillion yen (205 billion U.S. dollars), which is an increase of 3.1 percent, the auto giant said.

Toyota's Senior Managing Officer Masayoshi Shirayanagi told a press briefing on the matter in Tokyo Wednesday that sales in China and Western Europe were likely to increase looking ahead.

"We expect that sales in the United States will slow and those in the Middle East to struggle going forward but sales will expand in China and western Europe," Shirayanagi said.

Toyota said it expects sales in its Asian markets to increase to 1.68 million units from 1.54 million vehicles and those in Europe to rise to 970,000 vehicles from 968,000 units, for this fiscal year.

In the same period, however, Japan's biggest automaker said that sales in North America are expected to decline from 2.81 million units a year earlier to 2.75 million vehicles.

Shirayanagi also pointed to the potential downside risks of Britain exiting the European Union and stated that foresight could not help cushion the firm if Britain leaves the single bloc with no deal.

"We cannot avoid the negative impact no matter how much we prepare beforehand if Britain leaves the EU with no deal," Shirayanagi said, adding, "We will monitor the situation, hoping that it will not happen."

At this point, Shirayanagi made no mention of potential production changes in Britain due to Brexit, in contrast to smaller rival Nissan who announced recently it would be scrapping plans to manufacture its X-Trail SUV at its plant in Sunderland, in the northeast of the country. Enditem

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