GM sales edge slightly higher

General Motors Corp. said Thursday that its second-quarter sales were almost flat, as a decline in North America offset gains in other regions.

GM said it sold 2.4 million vehicles globally in the second quarter, up less than 10,000 vehicles from a year earlier.

The automaker also said sales outside the U.S., at 1.39 million vehicles, accounted for 58% of total sales.

Sales in North America, GM’s largest region by volume, fell 7%, hurt by high gasoline prices, a weak housing market and a planned reduction in daily rental sales.

Sales in every other region rose, and Paul Ballew, GM’s chief sales analyst, said on a conference call that the automaker expected to see sales outside the U.S. rise 400,000 to 500,000 units this year.

GM, which has been struggling in the U.S., has been growing overseas as it loses market share and sales to Japanese rivals on its home turf.

But in a bit of good news for GM, Toyota Motor Co. said it sold 2.366 million vehicles worldwide in the April-June period, slipping behind GM after beating the U.S. automaker in the previous quarter. Toyota said in April it sold 2.35 million vehicles in the January-March period, compared with 2.26 million vehicles at GM.

GM, after losing more than $10 billion in the last two years, is in the middle of a restructuring of its North American operations that includes slashing more than 34,000 jobs and closing 12 plants.

“We anticipate [the U.S.] will still be the most profitable market in the decade ahead,” Ballew said on the call.

“It’s really key not to be excessively dependent on the U.S., but you still need to be successful in the U.S.”

Ballew said GM should begin seeing a recovery in the U.S. in 2008.