General Motors has reported a three month net loss of $15.5bn (Ј7.8bn) as North American sales fell by 20%.
GM took a $3.3bn charge for buying out the contracts of 19,000 hourly workers who left at the end of June.
It also wrote off $1.3bn because of reduced values of big, used cars, which cut the value of formerly leased cars owned by its financing unit, GMAC.
Without one-off charges, GM lost $6.3bn compared with a net profit of $891m in the same period of 2007.
It is the third biggest quarterly loss in the carmaker's history.
On 15 July, GM announced the latest stage of its restructuring plans, which include laying off thousands of workers, speeding up the closure of truck and sports utility vehicle (SUV) plants, selling assets and suspending its dividend.
GM is not the only company suffering from the slowing US car market.
Earlier in the day, BMW warned that its profits for 2008 would be below forecasts and predicted a "difficult" 2009.
(BBC)
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