GM pays back $8.1B in loans
POSTED: Thursday, April 22, 2010
DETROIT » General Motors Co. has repaid $8.1 billion in loans it got from the U.S. and Canadian governments, a move its chief executive officer, Ed Whitacre, says is a sign the automaker is on the road to recovery.
The White House pointed to GM's repayment of the loan and Chrysler LLC's posting of an operating profit in the first quarter of 2010 as concrete signs that the bailout of the U.S. automakers was working.
In a report, the Obama administration noted the American auto industry lost more than 400,000 jobs in 2008 and analysts estimated another 1 million would have been lost had GM and Chrysler been liquidated. In the past nine months, the White House said automakers have added 45,000 jobs, the industry's strongest job growth in nearly a decade.
» Chrysler Group LLC says cost cuts, manufacturing efficiency and disciplined pricing helped the Italian-run automaker slash its net loss to $197 million in the first quarter. The red ink was far less than the staggering $3.8 billion that Chrysler lost from the time it left bankruptcy protection June 10 through the end of last year.
LOOKING AHEADHawaii Auto Outlook's forecast for state auto sales in 2010 compared with 2009 sales:
Source: Hawaii Auto Outlook
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