FACTBOX: GM bankruptcy enters crisis record books

(Reuters) - General Motors Corp filed for the largest bankruptcy by a manufacturer in U.S. history on Monday, joining the list of major collapses triggered by the biggest global economic slowdown in decades.

Here are some of the economic and corporate records set during this crisis:

BANKRUPTCIES

-- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc filed the biggest U.S. bankruptcy in history on Sept 15, 2008

-- Chrysler, the No. 3 U.S. automaker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 30 as part of a restructuring plan including an alliance with Italy's Fiat SpA.

-- General Motors became the biggest manufacturing bankruptcy in U.S. history when it filed for Chapter 11 protection on June 1.

BUDGETS

-- U.S. President Barack Obama forecast a deficit of $1.75 trillion for 2009 on February 26, which at 12.3 percent of GDP is the biggest since World War Two. A $569 billion U.S. budget deficit for the first four months of fiscal 2009 was a record for the period.

-- Britain has forecast a record budget deficit of 175 billion pounds ($286.7 billion) for this year

CORPORATE LOSSES

-- American International Group Inc reported a $61.7 billion fourth-quarter loss on March 2, the largest quarterly loss in U.S. corporate history.

-- Royal Bank of Scotland posted a 24.1 billion pound ($34.3 billion) loss for 2008 on February 26, the biggest loss in British corporate history.

GDP

-- Japan posted its biggest first-quarter fall in history as its economy shrank by 4.0 percent in real GDP in the January-March period.

-- Germany announced its biggest quarterly and annual declines in GDP since German reunification in 1990 on May 26, reporting its economy shrank 3.8 percent quarter-on-quarter and by 6.7 percent year-on-year in the January-March period.

-- Italy's economy contracted by 2.4 percent in the first quarter, it said on May 15, its steepest quarterly fall in GDP since the current series began in 1980.

INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT

-- Japanese crude steel output fell by more than 40 percent in February, March and April, including a 46.7 percent fall in March, its biggest year-on-year fall since January 1949.

-- British industrial output in March fell by 12.5 percent year on year, its sharpest fall since the series began in 1968.

INTEREST RATES

-- The European Central Bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 1.0 percent on May 7, its lowest level in the ECB's 10-year history.

-- The Bank of England cut interest rates by 50 basis points to a record low of 0.5 percent on March 5, their lowest level since the bank was created in 1694.

TRADE

-- Canada posted a quarterly current account deficit of C$9.06 billion ($8.24 billion) on May 29, its biggest since the federal statistical agency began collecting data in 1946.

(Writing by Carl Bagh, Editorial Reference Unit Bangalore; Additional writing and editing by David Cutler and Jason Neely)