Toyota Motor said Thursday it had returned to profit in the three months to September and upgraded its outlook for the rest of the year thanks to demand for fuel-efficient cars.

Toyota announced a surprise net profit of 21.8 billion yen (240 million dollars) for the second quarter of the fiscal year, sharply lower than a year earlier but much better than the first quarter's 77.8-billion-yen loss.

The world's largest automaker now expects to end the year 200 billion yen in the red, compared with an earlier forecast of a 450-billion-yen net loss.