(Adds operating profit, exceptional items, background)
PRAGUE, July 31 (Reuters) - Czech car maker Skoda Auto, a unit of Volkswagen AG , on Thursday posted lower operating profit and falling sales, as currency movements and a weak European car market hit performance at the country's leading exporter. The largest Czech company by turnover said in a filing with the Prague Stock Exchange that its net profit jumped to 1.46 billion crowns from 552 million crowns in the same period last year, but last year's comparison was knocked by an exceptional loss of 1.12 billion crowns.
Sales of own goods and services, the key revenue figure in Czech accounting standards, dropped to 73.07 billion crowns from 75.79 billion, and operating profit dropped to 2.50 billion crowns from 2.83 billion a year ago.
Skoda, which accounts for nearly one-tenth of all Czech exports, has said it was suffering from the strength of the crown -- which has risen up to 17 percent against the euro over the past year -- which made imported cars cheaper while eroding the company's export revenues.
The depressed European car market has also hit Skoda's sales. New western European car registrations dropped by eight percent year-on-year in June, although industry analysts said they thought the market had bottomed out.
Skoda declined to comment on the results, and no details were available on the exceptional loss in the year-earlier results.
The sales figures were in line with the firm's earlier reported 7.4 percent drop in worldwide unit sales in the first half to 228,386 cars.