TOKYO (Bloomberg) -- Panasonic Corp., Japan’s largest maker of refrigerators, said its domestic home-appliance unit may exceed its sales forecast this year, helped by government incentives to buy energy-saving products.

The company expects the program to boost demand and help sales beat a projection of 640 billion yen ($6.7 billion) in the year ending March 2010, Jun Ishii, the head of Panasonic Japan’s marketing division for home appliances, said in an interview.
The home-products unit overall was the most profitable of Panasonic’s four main businesses last year, outdoing divisions making televisions and stereos, electrical components and homes. The July-to-September quarter will be critical for the Japanese unit’s results, Ishii said, after the government introduced incentives in May to boost spending on appliances as a part of Prime Minister Taro Aso’s plan to spur economic growth.
“We’ve seen a significant rise in sales of refrigerators, and air conditioners have started to pick up as it gets hotter,” Ishii said in an interview on Friday in Tokyo.
Panasonic, based in Osaka, has climbed 16 percent this year in Tokyo trading, compared with an 11 percent gain for the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average.
Under the government program, buyers of refrigerators, air conditioners and TVs that meet government-set criteria earn points that can be exchanged for travel vouchers, railway tickets, coupons for rice and other goods.
Panasonic forecast May 15 that total sales at its home- appliance unit would fall 5 percent to 1.1 trillion yen in the year ending March 2010.