TOKYO: Nissan Motor Co. said Friday that it has lowered its consolidated operating profit forecast for the year ended last month by 90 billion yen to 530 billion yen.

The downward revision comes as vehicle sales were weak in North America amid persistent inflation and in Japan after a powerful New Year’s Day earthquake on the Noto Peninsula.

The Japanese automaker will spend 60 billion yen to help suppliers that were hurt by the sales decline in Nissan vehicles. “We’re responsible for our sales decline,” Nissan President and CEO Makoto Uchida said in a virtual press briefing.

Nissan cut its global vehicle sales forecast for the year from 3.55 million units to 3.44 million units.

The automaker’s failure to achieve its initial sales target may prevent some suppliers from recovering investments, Uchida said.

The Fair Trade Commission last month said Nissan had reduced payments to subcontractors without a fair reason. Uchida said the automaker has been making payments to affected subcontractors and that the payments have nothing to do with the downward revision in its financial performance.

Nissan slashed its net profit forecast by 20 billion yen to 370 billion yen and its revenue estimate by 400 billion yen to 12.6 trillion yen.

JIJI Press