General Motors on Wednesday said it had continued to feel the impact of the financial crisis in its third quarter sales but that the US had reached the bottom of its economic downturn.

The US carmaker sold 2.1m vehicles in the most recent quarter, a drop of 11.4 per cent from the same quarter last year, bringing its year-to-date sales to 6.7m, down 5.8 per cent on a year ago.

Michael DiGiovanni, GM’s head of global marketing and industry analysis, said the industry had felt the “tremendous snowballing effect around the world from financial turmoil” in the third quarter.

However, he mentioned the strengthening dollar, falling oil and commodity prices and rising housing starts as “positives” for GM’s business, in spite of a generally grim US car market. Actions taken by US authorities to stabilise financial markets would lay the groundwork for recovery.

“We believe the US is probably in the trough of its downturn right now,” he said.