YEREVAN, January 21. /ARKA/. Andrey Kostin, chairman of Russia's VTB Group, says 2015 will be the hardest year for Russian economy.

He was quoted by Vestifinance.ru as saying that the country's GDP may shrink by approximately 3% and inflation may exceed 10%.

VTB, like other Russian biggest companies and banks, is targeted by the U.S. and EU sanctions imposed over conflict in Ukraine.

The bank reported a 90 percent drop in third-quarter profit and cut more than a third of its employees in Europe as the sanctions restricted its ability to do business.

“We very much hope they will be loosened or softened and they will allow banks like us to come back to the capital markets and the bond markets,” Kostin said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Davos, Switzerland.

He said there’s no reason for sanctions to be strengthened or maintained.

The Russian government has supported VTB by allocating 100 billion rubles to it for financing an infrastructural project of the Russian Railways, and in the first quarter of this year the bank may receive another 150 billion, which will be enough for maintaining its capital.

The problem is that this money comes from the government and the central bank, Kostin said, and the bank has no option but to rely on the only source – the government.

He said that the ban's clients, Russian companies, feel now far better than in the 2009 crisis. «We have experience for resisting the crisis... We will manage to survive. I think the Russian economy will start rallying in 2016.»

“We don’t feel isolated,” said Kostin, who hosted a party at Davos for clients last night. “We have our partners and our friends. We have to adjust our business to the new conditions.” --0--