MOSCOW, May 18 (RIA Novosti) - AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest carmaker, announced on Monday a loss of 6.33 billion rubles ($198 million) in January-March 2009 against a net profit of 281 million rubles ($8.8 million) in the same period of 2008.

Revenues in the reporting period declined 54.6% to 16.99 billion rubles ($530.9 million).

The carmaker has suspended production several times this year amid declining sales and demand and also due to payment disputes with car part suppliers

Production costs doubled to 17.51 billion rubles ($547 million) in the reporting period while operating loss amounted to 1.43 billion rubles ($44.7 million) against an operating profit of 1.68 billion rubles ($52.5 million) in the same period a year ago.

The company's assets declined 13% in the reporting period due to the continued economic crisis and lower demand for cars, AvtoVAZ said.

According to the Association of European Business, AvtoVAZ's sales of cars and light commercial vehicles fell by 39% to 88,720 vehicles in the first three months of 2009.