(Adds inflation data, VTB comments) MOSCOW, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Russia needs to toughen monetary policy to slow inflation and lower inflation expectations, Central Bank Deputy Governor Alexei Zabotkin said on Wednesday, days after the bank sharply raised the key rate to curb growing prices. Last Friday, the central bank, which targets inflation at 4%, raised rates for the sixth time this year to 7.5% - a level last seen in mid-2019. Inflationary expectations among Russian householders rose to 13.6% in October, the highest in nearly a year, while inflation climbed to 7.97% as of Oct. 25, driven mostly by food prices. The central bank sees inflation next year at 4-4.5%. “For inflation and inflationary expectations to slow down from current elevated levels ... a tougher policy is needed,” Zabotkin said. Kirill Tremasov, a monetary policy department head at the central bank, said separately that inflation this year was likely to be closer to the upper end of the bank’s forecast of 7.4-7.9%. VTB, Russia’s second biggest bank, forecasts the key rate at 8% by year-end, as the central bank is also trying to cool down lending, another pro-inflationary factor, Dmitry Pianov, VTB’s board member, said on Wednesday. (Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya and Darya Korsunskaya; writing by Tom Balmforth and Katya Golubkova; editing by Robert Birsel)