MUNICH, Germany -

Thanks to strong demand within international markets during the second quarter, BMW Group now expects annual business performance and earnings will be significantly better than previously forecasted.

The automaker raised its sales volume and earnings forecast for the current financial year earlier this week.

OEM officials believe 2011 unit sales will increase above 10 percent compared to the previous year to more than 1.6 million BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brand vehicles. The forecast for the year had previously been for a sales volume of more than 1.5 million units.

The company highlighted the number of vehicles handed over to customers worldwide during the first half of the year increased by 19.7 percent to 833,366 units.

“The BMW Group continues to aim to achieve a reasonable balance in sales volume between Europe, Asia and the Americas,” officials explained.

In view of the strong performance to date and the good outlook for the coming months, the automaker now expects to achieve an EBIT margin of more than 10 percent for the full year, compared to the previous forecast of more than 8 percent.

Moreover, BMW continues to target a return on capital employed (RoCE) in excess of 26 percent.

“Sales volume and earnings growth in the automotive segment is likely to be dampened during the second half of the year by changes affecting some of the BMW Group’s high-volume models as well as by the market launch and production start-up of successor models,” the company acknowledged.

As a result of attractive market conditions and a less acute risk situation, officials also highlighted the financial services segment continues to aim to achieve a significant improvement in pre-tax profit and a return on equity of more than 18 percent in 2011.

“The sharp improvement in the risk profile for residual values and credit risks will be reflected in second-quarter earnings with a positive low three-digit million euro amount,” BMW said.

Based on the considerably improved outlook, BMW now expects to achieve an even greater improvement in pre-tax earnings than originally predicted.

“All of these targets are based on the assumption that economic and political conditions remain stable and that the global economy continues to grow,” the company concluded.