Business in brief: GM repays loans ahead of schedule

Detroit – General Motors Co.’s CEO Ed Whitacre said Tuesday that the automaker has repaid the $8.1 billion in loans it received from the U.S. and Canadian governments, a sign that a plan to rebuild the company is working.

GM got a total of $52 billion from the U.S. government and $9.5 billion from the Canadian and Ontario governments as it went through bankruptcy protection last year.

The U.S. considered as a loan $6.7 billion of the aid, while the Canadian governments held $1.4 billion in loans.

The U.S. government payments, made Tuesday, came five years ahead of schedule.

GM still owes $45.3 billion to the U.S. and $8.1 billion to Canada, in exchange for which they received large stakes in the company. The U.S. government now owns 61 percent of the company and Canada owns roughly 12 percent. GM plans to repay both with a public stock offering, perhaps later this year.

Associated Press

Apple reports profit jump of 90 percent

San Jose, Calif. – While the world was focused on its new iPad tablet, Apple’s iPhones and Mac computers surged to give the company a 90 percent leap in profit during its second quarter.

Apple reported earnings of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 a share, compared to year-ago profit of $1.62 billion, or $1.79 a share. Revenue surged 49 percent to $13.5 billion.

“We’re thrilled to report our best non-holiday quarter ever, with revenues up 49 percent and profits up 90 percent,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement.

Apple sold 8.75 million iPhones in the quarter, a 131 percent leap over the year-ago quarter; 2.94 million Macs, a 33 percent jump; and 10.89 million iPods, a 1 percent drop. Apple has said it expects sales of the popular iPhone to eclipse those of the iPod music player.

San Jose Mercury News

Monetary fund softens loss forecast

Washington – The world’s banks could be spared billions in losses thanks to a global economy that is recovering from the financial meltdown more quickly than initially expected.

The International Monetary Fund is forecasting that global bank losses from the financial crisis will total $2.28 trillion, a drop of $533 billion from an estimate made last October.

The IMF said Tuesday that its forecast for losses just for U.S. banks had dropped to $885 billion, down from an estimate of $1.03 trillion made in October.

But the IMF cautioned that while risks to the global economy from financial sector instability had lessened from a year ago, the risks from government debt burdens such as the problems in Greece had increased.

Associated Press