Canon forecast a 29.1% YoY increase for the current fiscal year.

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Consumer loans rose 9.1% yoy in April after discounting for inflation.

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For the current year it forecast a YoY rebound of 45.7% and sweetened the expectation by raising its dividend payout ratio range from 20-40% to 30-50%.

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This growth continued a trend from October, which saw comparable store sales for Gap in North America up 5% YOY.

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Comparable store sales for Gap in North America were up 5% YOY in November 2010 while company-wide comparable store sales increased 4%.

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One likely reason for this is a mixture of cooling North American demand combined with actual YoY unit volume declines in Europe.

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For instance, retail sales grew 12.6% year-on-year (YoY) in March down from the 15% recorded in the fourth quarter on last year.

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For the half year the deficit was JPY 1.5 trillion, up 78.6% YoY.

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