General Motors today posted improved third-quarter figures, narrowing losses as the embattled carmaker's turnaround plans looked to show results.

The world's largest auto group posted a $115 million (£61m) loss for the quarter, compared with a $1.7 billion loss a year earlier. Excluding one-off items, including charges for the reorganisation at GM’s bankrupt former parts division Delphi, the company said it would have posted a $529 million profit.

Third-quarter revenues came in at $48.8 billion, up from $47.1 billion during the same period a year ago. The company is on target to reach $9 billion in structural cost reductions this year, GM added.

Chief executive Rick Wagoner said the third-quarter results reflected "significant progress" in the company’s recovery plans, after it lost a record $10.6 billion last year.

He added: "Improvement in North America and Europe, combined with the strong sales growth and earnings performance we see in Asia and Latin America, confirm that our plan is on track."

GM attributed much of the improvement to its global automotive operations, where losses narrowed to $116 million, from $1.5 billion a year earlier. In North America, GM lost $374 million, down from $1.3 billion.

Globally, GM’s market share in the quarter was 13.9 per cent, down from 14.4 per cent during the same quarter of last year. It dropped nearly a full point in the US to 25.1 per cent from 26 per cent, losing share mainly to Asian competitors.

Today's figures follow GM's failed to develop a mooted alliance with Renault-Nissan, after the two sides failed to agree to the price the French-Japanese group should have paid for a 20 per cent stake in GM.

Asked about an alternative deal with Ford, which earlier this week reported a $5.8 billion quarterly loss, Mr Wagoner said he would not rule anything out but suggested Gm alliances are more likely to be smaller in scale, such as work on new hybrid engine technologies with BMW and DaimlerChrysler.

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