General Motors Corp. reported on Thursday that it lost 4.8 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of last year and 8.6 billion dollars in the whole year of 2005, resulting from heavy losses in its North American division.

The GM, the biggest automaker in the United States, said that its revenue was 51.2 billion dollars in the last three months of last year, down slightly from 51.4 billion dollars in the same period in 2004. The revenue of the whole year of 2005 was 192.8 billion dollars, also down slightly from 193.5 billion dollars in 2004.

Excluding special items included one-time restructuring costs, the GM said it lost 1.2 billion dollars in the latest quarter, compared to adjusted earnings of 726 million dollars in the fourth quarter of 2004. Excluding items for the entire year, the company posted a loss of 3.4 billion dollars in 2005 compared with an adjusted 2004 profit of 3.6 billion dollars in 2004.

The GM sold 9.2 million vehicles worldwide in 2005, the second-largest volume in the company's history. However, sales in the United States declined by 4 percent last year led by a 7 percent drop in car sales and a 2 percent decline in sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Source: Xinhua