Russian Railways posts $532 mln RAS net loss in 1Q09

Russian rail monopoly RZD said on Friday its net loss in the first three months of 2009 calculated to Russian Accounting Standards was 17.1 billion rubles ($532 mln).

MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russian rail monopoly RZD said on Friday its net loss in the first three months of 2009 calculated to Russian Accounting Standards was 17.1 billion rubles ($532 mln).

The company made a 19.74 billion-ruble profit in the same period of last year. RZD said the main factor behind the poor result was a 12.3% decline in passenger traffic.

The company said earlier that second-quarter losses were expected at 14.2 billion rubles ($418 mln). It previously said that 2009 net losses could total 49.7 billion rubles ($1.5 billion).