Nissan’s first half profit slumps

Tokyo: Japanese automaker Nissan logged a 10.9-percent drop in net profit for the six months to September owing to a decline in global sales and rising materials costs.

The results come as Nissan struggles to recover trust after an inspection scandal last year, while it suffered a new blow when it acknowledged in July that data on emissions and fuel economy had been deliberately "altered".

The firm´s bottom-line profit fell to 246.3 billion yen ($2.2 billion) from 276.5 billion yen registered in the same six-month period last year.

Sales came in at 5.5 trillion yen, down 2.1 percent on-year, but the firm -- allied with Renault SA of France -- maintained its annual forecasts of net profit of 500 billion yen on sales of 12 trillion yen.

"Unfortunately, both sales and profit continued to fall in the second quarter, facing such headwinds as declines in emerging economy currencies and rising raw material costs," Chief Financial Officer Hiroshi Karube told a news conference.