General Motors Corp. said Wednesday that it lost 286 million dollars in the second quarter of this year,resulting mainly from a loss of more than one billion dollars at its North American automotive operations.

As the largest automaker in the United States, the company said in a report that its North America branch lost 1.2 billion dollars in the last quarter, in comparison with earning of 355 million dollars in the second quarter of last year.

The loss resulted from lower production to compensate for bloated inventories early in the year, sluggish truck and sport utility vehicle sales and rising health care costs, the report said.

But the GM's finance arm, General Motors Acceptance Corp., again contributed heavily to the bottom line. The company posted net income of 816 million dollars in the quarter.

For the first half of 2005, GM lost 1.4 billion dollars comparing with a net income of 2.6 billion dollars a year ago, the report said.

Source: Xinhua