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The strong global presence of General Electric (GE) helped the company grow its profits by 4 percent for the fourth quarter, encouraging other companies that international sales could buffer domestic weakness.

For the first time in General Electric's history, global sales outperformed domestic sales, as they accounted for over half the revenue for the year. Their annual revenue increased to $172.74 billion.

Talking about that to shareholders, Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt said, "There's no sign that this global infrastructure boom is slowing at all."

Immelt reiterated that he still expects the company to generate 10 percent growth in its earnings per share for 2008.

The best performing businesses in the company for the fourth quarter were oil gas, energy and aviation. Specifically they said jet engines and power turbines led the way. The company delivered 56 gas turbines during the quarter, while last year during the same period they shipped 40.

The aircraft engine division enjoyed a 27 percent increase in profit, reaching $959 million, while the oil-and-gas division grew by 50 percent for a total of $332 million.

The consumer-credit division was able to grow their operating income by 7 percent, to end at $957 million. That isn't bad when considering they had to set aside another 333 million to cover losses. The majority of that was in connection to late payments on credit cards.

There's more on NBC Universal here.

GE's performance could be a good overall sign for a number of companies, as they're probably a bellwhether for what's to come in the months ahead. If other companies are close to their performance, the slowing U.S. economy may not be as much of a detriment as many are thinking.

That all assumes there is significant overseas sales.