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Honda's quarterly earnings

TOKYO: Japan's Honda Motor Co.Ltd. announced on Tuesday a 16.2 percent slump in net profit for the three months to December as a strong yen obliterated higher sales in all its key operations. Net profit fell to 63.3 billion yen (586 million dollars) from the same period of 1998 despite rises in Honda's motorcycle, automobile and power product sales. In Japanese currency terms, however, overall sales were worth 3.1 percent less at 1.45 trillion yen. Pre-tax profit fell 23.3 percent to 104.3 billion yen in the period.-AFP