MOSCOW, March 16 (Reuters) - Russian rail freight shipments fell 26-27 percent in early March compared with a year ago, broadly in line with the previous month's performance, Deputy Transport Minister Andrei Nedosekov said on Monday.
Freight shipment by rail, a broad indicator of economic activity, have been hit as Russia heads for its first recession in a decade. Industrial output posted a record fall in January as companies slashed working weeks and idled factories.
The slowdown in shipments eased to 24.2 percent in February, year-on-year, from 33.1 percent in January.
"That's a major improvement from what we've seen earlier this year," Nedosekov said of the March figures.
State-owned Russian Railways, the country's largest employer with 1.2 million workers, has said it expects freight shipments to decline by around a fifth for the year as a whole. (Reporting by Simon Shuster, writing by Toni Vorobyova, editing by Anthony Barker)