Rome, 21 October (AKI) - Italian car giant Fiat recorded a 308 million euro trading profit from July-September - a better-than expected result. The group's revenues for the quarter fell 15.9 percent to 12 billion euros compared with 14.3 billion last year.

And the third 308 million euro quarter trading profit - earnings before interest - was down 62 per cent from 802 million euros a year earlier, the Turin-based Fiat said in a statement.

Analysts had forecast trading profit for the Fiat group of 249 million euros and expected quarterly revenues of 11.8 billion euros.

The company said the figure was achieved "notwithstanding extremely weak economic conditions," a reference to the worst crisis to hit the car industry since World War II.

However, government incentives in Italy have helped sales recover.

Fiat reported a net profit of 25 million euros for the 2009 third quarter, compared with 468 million for the same period a year ago.

Fiat took over a controlling share of Chrysler LLC in June, and CEO Sergio Marchionne is set to announce Chrysler's five-year business plan on 4 November.

For the automobile unit, which includes the Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Fiat brands, trading profit was 155 million euros, well above analysts' expectations of 118 million euros.