MOSCOW, October 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's largest automaker AvtoVAZ said on Monday its net loss under International Accounting Standards increased almost 900% to 19.6 billion rubles ($653 million) in January-June from 2 billion rubles (67 million) a year earlier.

The global financial crisis has severely affected the Russian auto industry, with car sales down by half as banks have considerably limited lending to auto dealers and consumers.

AvtoVAZ said in a statement that its revenues declined 85.9% in the first half of 2009 to 53 billion rubles ($1.8 billion) amid declining demand for the company's products.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was negative at 12.9 billion rubles ($430 million) compared with a positive EBITDA of 5 billion rubles ($167 million) a year earlier.

The company's gross profit declined 89.5% to 1.3 billion rubles ($43 million). The number of Lada cars sold in the reporting period decreased 54.5% to 169,000 vehicles.