Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third-largest carmaker said net profit was down 16 percent in the latest quarter due to higher raw material costs and taxes.

Nissan earned a group net profit for the its first fiscal quarter of 92.31 billion yen ($7.69 billion) for the quarter, down from 110.15 billion yen ($9.17 billion) compared to the same quarter last year.

Its group operating profit declined 3.2 percent to 148.44 billion yen ($12.37B) compared to 153.35 billion yen　($12.78B) a year earlier although its group sales increased 11 percent to 2.446 trillion yen ($20.38 billion) compared to 2.210 trillion yen ($18.42 billion) a year earlier.

Nissan sold 875,000 vehicles globally in the quarter, up 5.9 percent compared to the previous year.

For the current fiscal year, the carmaker kept its outlook unchanged. It expects a group net profit of 480 billion yen ($4.0 billion ), operating profit of 800 billion yen ($6.7 billion)

A Nissan said that it expects a better outlook as new models appear. It also said it would recover quickly after a temporary halt in it plant operations caused the company to lose production of 12,000 vehicles due to an earthquake in western Japan last week.

Japan