WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department said Monday it will lose $1.6 billion on a loan made to Chrysler in early 2009.
Taxpayer losses from bailing out Chrysler and General Motors are expected to rise as high as $34 billion, congressional auditors have said.
Treasury said Monday that Chrysler repaid $1.9 billion of a $4 billion loan, which was extended before the company filed for Chapter 11. The government hopes to get another $500 million from the company that emerged from bankruptcy, Chrysler Group LLC.
The original loan was made in January 2009, when the Bush administration was scrambling to rescue Chrysler, GM and their auto financing arms.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated in March that the government's $85 billion bailout of the automakers would cost taxpayers $34 billion. Much of it will depend on how much the government recovers from its eventual sale of nearly 61 percent of GM and about 10 percent of Chrysler.