Tokyo - Toyota Motor Corp on Thursday lowered its earnings projections for the current fiscal year because of the rising yen and slowing auto demand in the United States amid the global financial crisis.

Japan's leading automaker expected operating income of 600 billion yen (6 billion dollars) for the year that ends March 31, down 62.5 per cent from its initial projection in May. It also forecast net income of 550 billion yen, down 56 per cent from its May estimate.

Sales were projected to decline 673,000 units to 8.24 million from the past fiscal year.

During the first half of the fiscal year, Toyota saw its operating income more than halve from the same period a year earlier to 582 billion yen.

Net income fell by 47.6 per cent to 493.47 billion yen, and sales were down 6.3 per cent to 12.19 trillion yen from April to September. (dpa)