(Photo: General Motors)

DETROIT The U.S. government has started to sell the rest of its stake in General Motors.

The Treasury Department says in a report to Congress that it sold $156.4 million worth of GMs common stock in January.

The report says the government has recovered about $29 billion of its $49.5 billion bailout of GM. That means its just over $20 billion in the hole.

Details on the average share price will be revealed later, Treasury says in the report.

GMs stock ranged from $27.61 to $30.68 in January. At an average price of $29.15, the government would have sold about 5.4 million shares.

The government owned 300.1 million GM shares on Jan. 1. Treasury has said it will sell the rest by early in 2014.