Nissan sees annual profit falling 7.7 percent on higher raw material costs

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co forecast on Thursday a 7.7 percent fall in operating profit this year as the Japanese automaker expects higher raw materials costs and the yen's strength to weigh on its bottomline.

Nissan expects operating profit to come in at 685.0 billion yen ($6.00 billion) in the year to March, lower than an average estimate of 778.4 billion yen from 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, and down from a 742.2 billion yen profit posted in the year just ended.

Nissan's forecast is based on a projection that the yen will average 108.0 yen to the U.S. dollar in the year through March, compared with 108.3 yen in the year just ended.

($1 = 114.1200 yen)

(Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)