Panasonic Corp. raised on Thursday its earnings forecast for the current business year through next March, projecting a net profit of 240 billion yen ($2.11 billion), supported by a recent weakening of the yen and its acquisition of a supply chain management firm.

The figure was revised upward from the company's earlier estimate released in May of 210 billion yen in net profit, and is now forecast at 45.4 percent up from the previous year.

Sales are expected to rise 9.0 percent from a year earlier to 7.3 trillion yen, up from the earlier projected 7.0 trillion yen, while operating profit will likely climb 43.1 percent to 370 billion yen, revised upward from 330 billion yen.

Its operating profit for the first fiscal half more than doubled to 201.20 billion yen after sales increased 15.5 percent to 3.53 trillion yen.

==Kyodo

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