Suzuki increased its annual global sales by 15.2% to 3,164 billion yen (£13.2bn) for the year ending March 31, 2007.

Suzuki’s operating profit was up for the seventh time in a row by 16.7% to 132.9 billion yen (£552m). It was the company’s sixth successive increase for annual net profit to a total of 75.01 billion yen (£313m), a 13.7% increase over the previous year.

The Japanese compact car specialist said the major factor for the success was demand for its vehicles and motorbikes in overseas markets. Sales outside Japan grew by 20.9%, while domestic sales shrank slightly by 2.3%.

Europe was Suzuki’s strongest market for growth, with sales up by 34.4%.

Suzuki expects to grow car sales by 8.2% this year to 2.4m units.

		2005/2006		2006/2007		Growth
Sales		2,746bn yen (£11.5bn)		3,164bn yen (£13.2bn)		(+15.2%)
Car sales (units total)		2,096,000		2,222,000		(+7.4%)
In Japan		707,000		691,000		(-2.3%)
Outside Japan		1,362,000		1,531,000		(+12.5%)