Hyundai Motor Co suffered a drop in quarterly earnings and is forecasting weak sales growth this year after falling behind competitors in factory expansions.South Korea's largest automaker said on Thursday its October-December net income dropped 22 per cent from a year earlier to 1.66 trillion won ($1.53 billion).
The median expectation of analysts surveyed by financial data provider FactSet was a 2 trillion won profit. Sales rose 8 percent to 23.6 trillion won.Hyundai blamed unfavorable foreign exchange rates for the lower earnings. Even though the South Korean won fell against the US dollar in favour of Hyundai, it rose against the Russian ruble and the currencies of other emerging market nations.