Nissan Motor Company’s net earnings after tax totalled 238.8 billion yen (£1.3 billion), an increase of 0.5% compared with last year, in the first six months of the financial year.

"Many of the external risks we forecast at the beginning of the year have materialised, including higher incentives, commodity prices and interest rates," said Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn. "Despite this challenging environment, we still achieved strong results for the first half due to robust sales in the U.S. and continuous improvement in our European operations."

Nissan’s net consolidated revenue amounted to 4.008 trillion yen (£20.98 billion), up 12.7% compared with the same period last year. Operating profit in the first half totalled 403.4 billion yen (£2.1 billion), up 0.6 % from the same period a year ago, while the operating profit margin came to 10.1%. Ordinary profit amounted to 401.4 billion yen up 2.8%.

Nissan’s debt amounted to 100.2 billion yen (£524 million) in the first half, down from 278.1 billion yen (£193 billion) on September 30, 2003.

Globally, Nissan sold a total of 1,596,000 vehicles in the first half of the fiscal year, an increase of 8.8% compared with last year.

Ghosn said Nissan would maintain its forecast for the full fiscal year.

"The business climate in the second half is likely to remain severe as the risks are expected to continue," said Ghosn. "Despite this outlook, we are maintaining our full-year forecast, supported by strong business fundamentals and the release of nine all-new models in key markets around the world."