TOKYO - Toyota's fiscal first-quarter profit plunged 28 percent from the previous year as slipping North American sales, a strong yen and rising material costs dented the earnings of the Japanese automaker, according to The Associated Press.

Toyota Motor Corp. has so far avoided the kinds of deep losses racked up by U.S. automakers such as General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. But even Toyota, Japan's top automaker, is seeing the momentous pace of its sales growth slow amid a U.S. downturn and soaring gas prices.

Toyota reported Thursday that its April-June profit fell to 353.66 billion yen ($3.23 billion) from nearly 492 billion the same period the previous year. Quarterly sales edged down 4.7 percent to 6.215 trillion yen ($56.8 billion).