General Motors’ Profit Tripled in Early 2011

VOA Breaking News (Voice of America)
May 5, 2011 at 5:15 pm UTC

The biggest U.S. automaker, General Motors, says its earnings tripled in the first three months of the year, its fifth consecutive profitable quarter since emerging from bankruptcy.

GM said Thursday it made $3.2 billion in the January-to-March period, compared to $865 million in the same period a year ago. The quarterly profit was the automaker's largest since 1990. It was boosted in part by increased vehicle sales in the U.S. and China, as well as sales of company assets.

GM's fortunes declined markedly in the worldwide recession, eventually forcing it to declare bankruptcy and accept a $49 billion U.S. government bailout in order to survive. Some critics of the government takeover derisively called the automaker “Government Motors.”

But now the company's stock is traded publicly again and the government has reduced its stake in the company from 61 to about 26 percent. The U.S. may soon sell even more of its GM shares.

Analysts say that GM could overtake Japan's Toyota as the world's biggest automaker this year. As GM's performance has improved, Toyota has struggled with quality issues and a sharp production slowdown in the aftermath of Japan's earthquake and tsunami in March.