Honda reports profit drop on yen, declining US, India sales

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Honda reported Friday a 29% decline in fiscal first quarter profit as an unfavorable currency exchange and declining auto sales in the U.S. and India hurt earnings.

Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co.’s April-June profit totaled 172.3 billion yen ($1.6 billion), down from 244.3 billion yen.

Quarterly sales dipped 0.7% to nearly 4 trillion yen ($37 billion).

Honda, which makes the Accord sedan, Odyssey minivan and Asimo robot, said both auto and motorcycle sales declined during the quarter on-year.

Honda lowered its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2020 to 645 billion yen ($6 billion), down from an earlier forecast of 665 billion yen ($6.2 billion).

But the latest projection is better than the 610 billion yen Honda earned the previous year.

Honda expects to sell 5.1 million vehicles and 20 million motorcycles for this fiscal year.