General Motors Corp. reported on Wednesday a loss of 3.2 billion U.S. dollars, or 5.62 dollars per share, for the second quarter of 2006.

Despite the big deficit, the result was still better than expected for the World No. 1 automakers absorbed heavy charges for its massive restructuring program.

The loss of 3.2 billion dollars compared with a loss of 987 million dollars, or 1.75 dollars per share, for the same period last year.

The net loss for the second quarter included a total of 4.3 billion dollars in special items that reflected a previously announced 3.7 billion dollars after-tax charge related to the accelerated attrition program, in which 34,400 hourly employees participated, GM said in a statement.

Excluding special items, GM has reported a net income of 1.2 billion dollars on record revenue of 54.4 billion dollars in the second quarter.

"We're particularly pleased with the speed with which our people have implemented our turnaround plan. Conventional wisdom is that you can't turn a ship as big as GM around quickly," said GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner. "We aim to prove that conventional wisdom wrong."

In North America, excluding special items, GM posted an adjusted loss of 85 million dollars, a 1.1 billion-dollar improvement over the second quarter of 2005.

Source: Xinhua