Volkswagen to Meet 2008 Profit Target a Year Early

Volkswagen, the world's fourth largest carmaker, will meet its 2008 pretax profit target of 5.1 billion euros ($7 billion) a year earlier than planned, the company said on Friday.

After reporting a 45% increase in pre-exceptional operating profit to 2.82 billion euros for the first half, Volkswagen said it would "significantly" exceed the previous year's figure before special items, which was 4.38 billion euros.