Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday it expects its fiscal 2020 net profit to fall 63.8 percent from a year earlier to 165 billion yen ($1.56 billion) due to weak demand for its cars amid the global novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Japanese automaker forecasts its operating profit in the current business year through next March to drop 68.4 percent to 200 billion yen, on estimated sales of 12.8 trillion yen, down 14.3 percent.

In the April-June period, Honda posted a net loss of 80.87 billion yen and an operating loss of 113.69 billion yen, on sales of 2.12 trillion yen, down 46.9 percent.

==Kyodo

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