General Motors Corporation, also known as GM, announced it has reported a fourth- quarter loss on an increasing deficit in the North American market. The company also said it will counter the loss with a new wave of buyout offers to about 74,000 United Auto Workers employees.

The multinational corporation headquartered in the United States of America and the world’s largest auto manufacturer since 1931 reported a loss of $722 million, the equivalent of $1.28 a share. At the end of the fourth quartet of fiscal year 2006, GM had posted a profit of $950 million, or $1.68. Automotive revenue rose 7 percent to $46.7 billion, Detroit-based GM said in a statement today.

“It was a tough quarter in North America. Volumes were down, and there was tougher pricing because we had a full incentive load for our pickups,'' the company’s CFO Fritz Henderson told reporters today in Detroit.

General Motors reported a fourth-quarter adjusted profit of $46 million, or 8 cents a share, much lower than the adjusted profit of $180 million, or 32 cents a share, a year earlier.

The fourth quarter report also reflects a $1.6 billion tax benefit in continuing operations related to an accounting rule for intra-period tax allocations between continuing operations, other comprehensive income and discontinued operations.

GM fell 67 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $26.45 at 8:44 a.m. before regular New York trading.

The corporation also released a statement regarding the fourth-quarter profit and said that the first half of 2008 is likely to be harsh for industry sales in North America, but it expects to see a rebound in the second half of the year.