Business May. 13, 2008 - 05:38AM JST ( 0 )

TOKYO —

Dentsu Inc said Monday its fiscal 2007 group profit and sales fell year-on-year for the first time in six years as advertising demand decreased amid a slowdown in the Japanese economy.

For the year that ended in March, group operating profit dropped 10.7% from the previous year to 56,126 million yen on sales of 2,057,554 million yen, down 1.7%, Japan’s biggest advertising agency said.

But the net profit rose 18.1% to 36,246 million yen because some past appraisal losses qualified for subtraction from taxable income.

For the current year to March 2009, Dentsu projects group operating profit of 58.4 billion yen, up 4.1% from the preceding term, on sales of 2,083 billion yen, up 1.2%, boosted by the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

JCN