GM to Start Payback

General Motors will start repaying the government five years ahead of schedule.

The largest U.S. automaker will repay $6.7 billion of the $49.9 billion in aid from the U.S. government, beginning next month. GM will make a payment of $1 billion a quarter, beginning Dec. 31, a source close to the planning told several news organizations.

An official announcement of the plan is expected with the long-awaited release of GM's earnings today.

The company has lost $88 billion since 2004, and was forced into a high-speed Chapter 11 session this year. It emerged from that Chapter 11 with little debt, a pile of cash from the government, and plans to shut down Pontiac and Saturn and sell Hummer and Saab. The company is focusing on core brands like Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC.

And Bloomberg reports the company can start repaying the government earlier because that strategy is beginning to work. The company is in a better-than-expected financial position.

“GM’s sales in North America and China, especially, are doing quite well,” Masatoshi Nishimoto, a Tokyo-based analyst at auto consulting company CSM Worldwide, told Bloomberg. “The company may finally be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.”

GM isn't required to pay the government until July 20 2015.