Russia Loses 0.2 Percent of GDP in 2014 Amid Sanctions: Study

Russia lost $2 billion, or 0.2 percent of its GDP, in 2014 due to sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West over the crisis in Ukraine.

MOSCOW, January 12 (Sputnik) — Russia lost 121.4 billion rubles ($2 billion), or 0.2 percent of its GDP, in 2014 amid sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West over the Ukrainian crisis, Russian audit and consulting group FBK Grant Thornton said in a report Monday.

According to FBK by mid-2015, the country's GDP is expected to shrink by 1.2 percent, or 949.4 billion rubles.

Director of the FBK's Strategic Analysis Institute Igor Nikolayev said that estimating the damage to the Russian economy was a challenging task, as even before sanctions there was a downward GDP dynamic and this trend depended on a number of different factors.

The key factor identified in the study was the impact of the corporate sector's foreign debt.

Nikolayev also said that the sanctions are taking a larger toll on the Russian economy as the economic situation worsens. The strong dollar and weak ruble are also said to be the result of the Western sanctions.

The United States, the European Union and a number of other Western nations have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia over the Ukrainian crisis. The West has accused Moscow of meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs and escalating the crisis, allegations the Russian government has denied.