Thank you for waiting. We appreciate you participating in the conference call for the first nine months of fiscal year ending March 31, 2019 for Sysmex. Today's presenters and those who answer your questions will be Senior Managing Director and CFO, Yukio Nakajima, and Senior Vice President of Corporate Business Administration, Tomoo Aramaki. First, Nakajima will present the financial highlights for 15 minutes, followed by 30 minutes for Q&A session. We'll be starting shortly, and Nakajima will explain the financial highlights. My name is Nakajima of Sysmex. I would like to go over the financial highlights for the first nine months of fiscal year ending March 31, 2019. Please take a look at the page one, financial highlights. Net sales JPY 208.3 billion, growth rate is 2.9%, operating profit JPY 42.5 billion, 4.5% down, profit attributable to owners of the parent JPY 28.9 billion, 5.4% down.
For net sales, increased due to higher sales of reagents centered on the hematology, hemostasis, immunochemistry and Life Science fields. For operating profits, it was down due to the impact of temporary factors in the same period of the previous year, worsening cost ratio as well as to higher R&D expenses. Please take a look at the table, lower left for foreign exchange, JPY 0.6 appreciation against U.S. dollar, when JPY down against EUR, Chinese yuan remained the same. We had a minus impact of JPY 1.63 billion and operating profit JPY 0.22 billion increase. Profit attributable to owners of the parent, despite a lower tax rate, profit was down due to the impact of a gain on sales of shares of bioMérieux, equity and losses of Medicaroid, and increase in foreign exchange losses in the previous term.
The tax rate is 27.8%, 4.9 points down compared with the previous fiscal year. That is due to Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the U.S. and the refund of withholding tax following the Japan-Germany tax treaty. Let's take a look at the next page, breakdown of net sales and operating profit. External sales by region. While we had foreign exchange impact, mainly driven by the growth in Americas, EMEA and China, our sales increased. For foreign exchange impact, JPY depreciated, but JPY appreciated against U.S. dollars and due to emerging currency impact, total minus JPY 1.6 billion impact. By region, Americas JPY 440 million minus impact, EMEA JPY 660 million minus impact, China JPY 210 million minus impact, and AP JPY 320 million minus impact. For operating profit, because of sales increase, gross profit also increased, but due to worsening cost of sales ratio, SG&A and R&D expense increase, it went down.
Cost of sales, while sales proportion of reagents went up due to steep rise in crude oil price and logistics cost increase and the service commission expenses transferred from SG&A to COGS from our second quarter, it went down. SG&A, due to personal increase in emerging countries in EMEA, including Egypt and Russia, SG&A increased. R&D expense, in addition to core and next core business and network solution investment, it increased. Due to the impact of dissolution of employees' pension fund in previous fiscal year, cost of sales, minus JPY 0.4 billion down, SG&A minus JPY 1.2 billion down. Please take a look at the next page, sales by business and product type. For core businesses, mainly hematology, immunochemistry and hemostasis grew. That resulted in 3.3% increase. For hematology, reagent sales drove the sales and urinalysis, even though it grew in Japan, due to FDA new product approval delay, it went down.
Immunochemistry, the instrument and reagent sales grew in China. Hemostasis, the instrument sales in the United Americas and the reagent sales in China increased. Core business, 19.4% increase. Life Science business, because of the growth of OSNA new products in Spain, it increased. Page. Net sales by geographic region. Please look at the upper right, year-on-year, Americas, EMEA, and China. For both the JPY base and local currency base, they increased. For AP, due to emerging currency impact, JPY base, it went down. Japan, flat, overall 2.9% sales increase. Page. Starting here is the activities in each region, starting with Americas. Sales, JPY 45.6 billion, growth, 3.2%. Sales were up due to higher sales of Hematology reagents and Hemostasis instruments in the U.S., despite lower Hematology sales in Central and South America. Operating profit, JPY 2.5 billion. Growth rate, 33.9% down.
Operating profit was down as the impacts of a revision in intra-group transaction prices, higher service costs, and other factors outweighed the rise in sales. Local currency basis sales went up by 3.8%. Operating profit, 33.6% down. By region, U.S., 7.1% increase. While sales decreased due to delayed FDA approval of a Urinalysis product, sales rose due to expansion of the installed instrument base, which pushed up Hematology reagent sales, as well as higher sales of Hemostasis instruments. For Canada, 15.9% down. Sales were down, reflecting deals for major commercial laboratories in the same period of the preceding fiscal year. Central and South America, 7.2% down. Sales fell as a result of a prolonged decrease in the sales of Hematology instruments to distributors, despite positive performance in direct sales of new products in the Urinalysis field in Brazil and Colombia. Page. EMEA. Sales, JPY 56.7 billion.
Growth rate, 4.1%. Despite the ongoing impact of depreciation in the value of emerging market currencies such as Russian ruble and Turkish lira, sales grew as a result of higher sales in the Hematology and Life Science fields. Operating profit, JPY 4.7 billion, 8.2% increase. The cost of sales ratio improved due to a revision in intra-group transaction prices, the sales increase pushed up gross profit. These factors outweighed such items as a rise in SG&A expenses following the establishment of direct sales in Egypt and others. Local currency basis, sales went up by 3.3%. Operating profit went up by 7.4%. Five major countries, 4.8% increase. Sales rose due to higher sales of Hematology instruments in France and Italy, and the contribution of increased new product sales in Spain in the Life Science field, OSNA.
For Eastern Europe and Russia, driven by the increased reagent sales, sales went up, but due to sales decrease in Eastern Europe, sales went down. Excluding the Russian ruble depreciation impact, Russia's sales went up by 17.1%. Middle East and Africa, 1.1% increase. While Middle East sales went down, in Africa, due to increased Hematology reagent sales and large project won in Burkina Faso last year, sales went up. Page, please. China. Sales, JPY 54.7 billion. Growth rate, 4.7% increase. Sales rose as higher reagent sales due to favorable increases in the Immunochemistry and Hemostasis fields offset lower instrument sales. Operating profit, JPY 6.9 billion, 15.2% increase. Although affected by a revision in intra-group transaction prices, operating profit rose due to a rise in gross profit stemming from higher reagent sales. Local currency base, sales went up by 4.9%. Operating profit, 15.4% increase.
The growth rate by fields, hematology, 1.8% down. Sales dipped due to falling instrument sales, although reagent sales were robust. Hemostasis, 10.5% increase. Favoring reagents pushed up sales. Urinalysis, 6.1% down. Sales in this field dropped due to lower instrument sales in comparison with the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, when the launch of a new product prompted a demand surge. Immunochemistry, 39.3% increase. Sales expanded owing to higher instrument sales and a rise in reagent sales centered on reagents for infectious diseases. We restarted the sales of the instrument. It was temporarily stopped. Next, AP. Sales, JPY 17.5 billion, the growth rate 1.8% down. Despite firm sales in South Korea and Thailand, sales were down due to the impact of a major tender acquisition in the same period of the previous fiscal year in South Asia. Operating profit, JPY 2.2 billion, 4.1% increase.
Operating profit rose due to an improved cost of sales ratio stemming from higher reagent sales, despite the impact of a revision in intra-group transaction prices and increased SG&A expenses. By region, Southeast Asia, 2.4% increase. Sales rose due to higher sales in the hematology and urinalysis fields in Thailand, despite the drop in instrument sales affected by fiscal deficits in Indonesia's National Health Insurance plan. South Asia, 31.1% down. Sales declined due to the impact of large tenders in the same period of the previous year in India and Bangladesh. South Korea and Taiwan, 8.7% increase. Sales increased mainly due to higher sales in the hematology field in South Korea. It is following the installation of XN series. Next, Japan. The total Japan sales, including external intra-area transfer, JPY 109 billion, 2.5% increase.
Sales in Japan fell affected by the dissolution of a joint venture with an alliance partner, bioMérieux, in the preceding fiscal year. Overall sales grew due to exports to affiliated company overseas. Operating profit, JPY 28 billion, 5.9% down. Operating income decreased due to temporary factors, including the dissolution of the employees' pension fund in the preceding fiscal year, as well as to higher R&D expenses. Consolidated earnings forecast. No revisions subsequent to November 2018 announcement. We included attachments such as progress on issues for sustainable sales growth and year-on-year growth, excluding extraordinary factors.