Tokyo: Canon chopped its annual profit forecast Tuesday as the camera and copier maker warned that a sharp rise in the yen was taking a bite out of its bottom line. The company said it now expected weaker sales and a net profit of 180 billion yen ($1.7 billion; Dh6.22 billion) this year, down 10 per cent from a previous forecast that had also been downgraded due to slowing growth in China and a pickup in Japan’s currency. Canon’s latest six months-to-June net profit fell 20 per cent to 81.4 billion yen, while operating profit dropped nearly 37 per cent from a year ago. Sales fell almost 10 per cent to 1.66 trillion yen for the half-year period, it said.