General Motors has beat market expectations by posting a $891 million profit for the second quarter, stark contrast to the $3.4 billion loss it made in the same period only one year ago. This was the third straight quarter of profits for GM, which cited improve sales in new markets as the main reason for the improvement.

CEO Rick Wagoner commented that the "heavy commitment to key growth markets around the world really paid off in strong growth and earnings," reports the Associated Press.

Despite the good news, GM still made a loss of $39 million back home in the States but a large part of this was associated with the $520 million in charges surrounding the restructuring of Delphi Corp. Excluding these special items, GM claims its profit would have been a staggering $1.4 billion.