Toyota raises profit forecast on disaster recovery

TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota is reporting that quarterly profit slid 13.5 percent but is confident enough in a recovery to raise its forecast for annual profit.

Toyota Motor Corp. reported Tuesday an 80.9 billion yen ($1.05 billion) profit for the October-December third quarter, down from 93.6 billion yen a year earlier.

Car production was hurt by the tsunami disaster in Japan and flooding in Thailand last year.

But underlining a recovery is on track, Toyota raised its fiscal year profit forecast to 200 billion yen ($2.6 billion) from an earlier 180 billion yen ($2.3 billion).