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TOKYO, Aug 9, 2008 (AFP) - Japan Inc has forecast a bigger profit decline than its earlier estimate for the year to March 2009 due to price hikes and an economic slowdown at home and in the United States, a daily said Saturday.
Combined full-year group pretax profit is now seen falling 9.2 percent, compared with the initially estimated 5.6 percent, the Nikkei business daily said in its survey.
The newspaper covered 1,324 listed firms that had reported their April-June quarterly earnings by Friday.
Some 140 firms have recently downgraded their full-year earnings projections as rising fuel and material costs eroded earnings while the Japanese and US economies are slowing, the daily said.
Combined pretax profit is now expected to drop 22 percent for the first half and rise four percent for the second half. Although the first-half figure is largely the same as before, firms had initially anticipated a second-half rise of 10 percent, it said.
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