It's a profit, Italia!

FIAT Auto has posted its first positive quarterly trading profit after 17 successive quarters of losses.

The Fiat group announced yesterday that its Q4 2005 profit of €21 million saw it reduce its full-year trading loss to €281 million (€541 million lower than in 2004).

Fiat closed the year with €1.4 billion of net income and net industrial debt of €3.2 billion, following two per cent higher revenues in 2005, when its trading profit reached €1 billion compared to €50 million in 2004.