Toyota quarterly profit rises to $5 billion on weak yen

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota's quarterly profit rose 13.5 percent to 611.7 billion yen ($5.0 billion) and the automaker kept its annual earnings forecast unchanged despite trimming its expectations for vehicle sales.

The cheap yen, a boon for Japanese exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp. because it boosts the value of overseas earnings, added 160 billion yen ($1.3 billion) in operating profit for the quarter.

Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid, Camry sedan and Lexus luxury model, kept its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March unchanged at 2.25 trillion yen ($18.5 billion).

Toyota's initiative to make common some of the basic parts on which its sprawling range of models is built, called Toyota New Global Architecture, helped to reduce costs.