MOSCOW, May 7 (Reuters) - Russia's economy contracted for the fifth month in a row in April, though at a weaker rate, the VTB Capital's GDP indicator showed on Thursday.
The indicator showed the economy contacting 4.7 percent year-on-year in April, after shrinking the record low 5.4 percent in March.
The indicator slipped into contraction territory in December, as Russia heads for its first recession since the 1998 financial crisis, rouble collapse and sovereign default.
"The April PMI surveys suggest that stocks of finished goods were back to their long-run trend, and according to the GDP Indicator the pace of economic contraction already slowed in April", VTB Capital senior economist Aleksandra Yevtifyeva said in the report.
"The most encouraging trend in the recent survey is the moderation in unemployment growth in the manufacturing and services sectors".
"This might lead to some stabilisation in consumption which has shown an increasingly rapid decline in the past two months".
Yevtifyeva said that inflation has started to decline as well.
"Costs are increasing at a lower rate, while prices charged are falling. The latter is particularly important for the services sector, which recorded a drop in prices for the first time in the past seven years".
GDP y/y growth GDP index
according to
VTB index 2009 April -4.7 42.6 March -5.4 42.1 Feb -4.7 38.8 Jan -2.9 32.1 2008 Dec -0.3 32.0 Nov 2.6 36.5 Oct 5.2 48.0 Sept 6.5 54.6 Aug 6.8 54.7 July 7.3 57.5 June 7.4 59.0 May 6.9 59.2 (Reporting by Olga Borodina)