(Yicai) Feb. 7 -- The Chinese unit of Toyota Motor was dragging down the Japanese car giant's good performance in the three quarters ended December due to slowing sales and rising costs.

From April to December last year, the China subsidiary recorded a 12 percent decline in operating profit to JPY138.7 billion (USD969.9 million) from a year ago because of exchange rate fluctuations and widening sales expenditures, the Toyota-headquartered company wrote in its earnings report yesterday. Its sales in China also fell during the same period.

The automaker's global revenue tallied around JPY34 trillion (USD237.9 billion) during the three quarters, an increase of 24 percent, per the report. Net profit more than doubled to JPY3.95 trillion (USD27.6 billion).

Toyota also announced that the firm expects to expand its operating profit this fiscal year by 9 percent to JPY4.9 trillion.

During the nine last months of 2023, Toyota sold 11.2 million vehicles, up 7 percent. Hybrid vehicles made up almost one-third of the total. But sales in the Chinese market slipped by 2 percent to 1.9 million units.

Following the global profit boost, shares of Toyota [TYO: 7203] rose to close 4 percent higher at JPY3.26 (2 US cents) in Tokyo.

Editor: Emmi Laine