General Motors Corp, on Wednesday, posted a first-quarter net loss of $3.25 billion, compared with a profit of $62 million a year-earlier due to a costly supplier strike, waning demand for its most profitable vehicles and charges related to struggling former subsidiaries, although results beat Wall Street expectations.

GM also took a $1.45-billion charge for its remaining investment in finance company GMAC and a $731-million charge for its exposure to the bankruptcy of auto parts supplier and former subsidiary Delphi Corp. Revenue declined to $42.7 billion from $43.4 billion. Excluding one-time items, GM reported a first-quarter loss of $350 million, a narrower loss than Wall Street had expected.

GM Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said analysts may have underestimated the strength of GM’s sales from emerging markets and the progress it made in cutting costs in North America. “The headline numbers don’t look that great, but when you actually peel back the numbers ... I feel the first quarter is very encouraging,” Young said. GM’s global sales fell nearly one per cent to 22.5 lakh vehicles in the first quarter, falling far behind rival Toyota Motor Corp, which reported a nearly three per cent increase to 24.1 lakh vehicles.

A slowing US economy and rising gas prices sent industry-wide sales down 8 per cent in the quarter and have driven sales of larger vehicles down more sharply. GM said the strike had cost 100,000 units of lost production and depressed first-quarter results by about $800 million.