Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it expects a 64.1 percent drop in net profit in the current business year through March to 730 billion yen ($6.9 billion) as the global coronavirus pandemic hurts auto demand.

The Japanese automaker, meanwhile, retained its forecast in May of an operating profit for the year of 500 billion yen, down 79.2 percent from the previous year. In May, the company only disclosed sales and operation profit estimates for the year.

Toyota expects sales to drop 19.6 percent to 24 trillion yen in the year to March, also unchanged from the May forecast.

==Kyodo

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