MOSCOW, Jan 23 (PRIME) -- Russian banking group VTB expects its 2014 net profit to be close to zero and in 2015, the group will see a net loss due to the Western sanctions and high interest rates, CEO Andrei Kostin said late Thursday in an interview to The Wall Street Journal.
“We expect a zero profit for 2014, and may see a loss in 2015 if the central bank doesn’t start lowering rates,” Kostin said. “Before, I was able to develop it (VTB) on the free market, to borrow on global markets, sell shares, but the sanctions have made all that impossible.”
The newspaper asked Kostin, a senior state banker who regularly meets President Vladimir Putin, what was the Russian authorities’ stance on the effect of sanctions, Kosin said that Moscow tries to “minimize sanctions” but no trade-offs concerning Crimea will be made.
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