General Motors (GM) has reported a $9.6 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2008, bringing the company's losses for the year to $30.9 billion. In a company statement, CEO Rick Wagoner said, "2008 was an extremely difficult year for the U.S. and global auto markets, especially the second half. 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. We expect these challenging conditions will continue through 2009, and so we are accelerating our restructuring actions." GM also says it burned through $6.2 billion in cash during the fourth quarter. Last week, the company asked the federal government for an additional $16.6 billion in bailout funds on top of the $13.4 it had previously received.