Tokyo - Mitsubishi Motors Corp on Thursday lowered its earnings forecast for the fiscal year that ends on March 31 because of slow auto sales and the yen's recent rise against other major currencies.

The Japanese automaker dropped its operating profit projection to 50 billion yen (514 million dollars) from an initial 60 billion yen. Such profits would represent a 54-per-cent drop from last year.

The company also cut sales for the full year as the global financial crisis roils credit and stock markets and has sent sales down.

Mitsubishi projected its sales would be 2.36 trillion yen, down from an initial estimate of 2.65 trillion yen, but it maintained its net profit projection at 20 billion yen.

For the July-to-September quarter, Mitsubishi saw its net profit decline to 2.5 billion yen from 2.6 billion yen a year before.

Operating profit grew 20 per cent in the second quarter to 15.3 billion yen from the year before on sales of 603.9 billion yen, down 12 per cent.

Operating profits, a company's earnings minus interest payments and taxes, are seen as a measure of its earnings power from ongoing operations. (dpa)