WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) — The US government is confident that automaker General Motors will pay back the entire US$50 billion of public money invested in the company to bail it out, the White House said yesterday.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters that recent strong sales posted by the auto giant auger well for its future financial viability and its ability to repay the funds.

“First and foremost, we’ve seen pretty strong sales figures, which I think

are certainly encouraging,” Gibbs said.

He also cited General Motors’ announcement Wednesday that it would try to raise US$13 billion from a new stock offering, part of the auto giant’s efforts to break away from government ownership.

The IPO will “reduce our stake in GM as a company, and as we move forward, begin to recoup the money that we invested in saving good jobs in the US”, Gibbs said.

No firm date was set for the IPO, which is is expected sometime this month.

The IPO will be a turning point in the crisis that forced the nation’s largest automobile manufacturer to declare bankruptcy last year.

Once the world’s largest corporation, GM sold more vehicles than any other automaker from 1931 through 2007, after which it lost the crown to Japan’s Toyota.

Hit by falling sales amid a steep US recession, GM was forced into a government-backed bankruptcy reorganisation on June 1, 2009. It emerged a little more than a month later with a debt pile of US$48.4 billion.

The automaker transferred its main assets to a new government-supported car company under a plan financed by the administration of President Barack Obama and the Canadian government.

The US government owns a 60.8 per cent stake in General Motors Company and the Canadian and Ontario governments have an 11.7-per cent holding.