CHICAGO, (AFP) - General Motors has warned of a “challenging” year ahead as it posted a 30.9-billion dollar 2008 loss, bringing the tally from four consecutive years of bleeding balance sheets to a whopping 86.6 billion dollars.

The 2008 results were nonetheless an improvement upon 2007, when GM posted a 43.3 billion dollar loss due primarily to a massive accounting charge, even as annual revenues fell to 149 billion from 180 billion in 2007.

The struggling automaker, which last week asked the US government for billions more in emergency loans, said its dismal results reflected the global economic crisis and an industry-wide collapse in demand.

“2008 was an extremely difficult year for the US and global auto markets, especially the second half,” GM chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said in a statement.

“These conditions created a very challenging environment for GM and other automakers, and led us to take further aggressive and difficult measures to restructure our business,” Wagoner said.

“We expect these challenging conditions will continue through 2009, and so we are accelerating our restructuring actions.”

General Motors said it could need up to another 22.6 billion dollars in government loans to survive the economic downturn and announced plans to slash 47,000 jobs worldwide amid a massive restructuring plan.

The automaker asked the US Treasury for an additional 16.6 billion dollars on top of the 13.4 billion received in recent weeks and said it is also asking for funding support from the governments of Canada, Germany, Britain, Sweden, and Thailand.