Tokyo - Panasonic Corp said Friday that it had returned to profit in its fiscal third quarter, helped by cost-cutting efforts and strong global sales of flat-panel televisions.

     In the October-December quarter, the electronics giant posted a net profit of 32.3 billion yen (361.06 million dollars), marking an improvement from a loss of 63.1 billion yen in the same quarter a year before.

     Its operating profit almost quadrupled to 101 billion yen from 26.4 billion yen a year before, while its revenue increased 0.4 per cent to 1.89 trillion yen.

     Panasonic also revised upward its sales projection for this financial year ending March 31 to 7.35 trillion yen from the previous projection of 7 trillion yen.

     The company expected its operating profit for the financial year to be 150 billion yen, up from the previous forecast of 120 billion yen. The company, however, maintained its projection of a net loss of 140 billion yen.

DPA