Author Archives: Editor

Tokayev says that Russia did not annex Crimea

DEC. 4 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in an interview with the German newspaper Deutsche Welle that Russia hadn’t annexed Crimea in 2014. He insisted that the word annexation was too strong to use in the context of Crimea. Western policy has always been that Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine. Mr Tokayev also said that Kazakhstan had no concern that Russia was looking to annex Russian populated areas of northern Kazakhstan.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Georgian Dream supporters rally against opposition

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DEC. 2 (The Bulletin) — Supporters of the Georgian Dream government coalition rallied in central Tbilisi against anti-government protesters who have been demonstrating since the end of last month when parliament voted against introducing election reforms called for by the opposition. Analysts are increasingly worried that street-level politics has become the norm in Georgia.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Kazakhstan plans to return men to China

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DEC. 7 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee said that two ethnic Kazakhs who crossed over from China’s western Xinjiang province illegally to escape what they said was the persecution of Muslim minorities will be returned to the Chinese authorities. A court case against Kaster Musakhan and Murager Alimuly for crossing the border illegally in October is due to begin soon but Darkhan Dilmanov, deputy head of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee has already said that they have “no chance” of staying.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Kazakhstan prepares to bail out banks, again

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ALMATY/Dec. 9 (The Bulletin) –Kazakhstan is preparing another $1b bailout of its banking system, a sign that the economy is recovering at a slower pace-then-expected from a 2014 downturn and also that banks have not been reformed substantially to deal with this sluggish economic growth.

Reuters quoted two sources who were described as being familiar with the plans as saying that an asset quality review had shown up holes in the balance sheets of at least four banks.
The Central Bank, Kazakhstan’s financial regulator, has declined to comment but if these asset gaps are confirmed it will be another blow to Kazakhstan’s prestige as the financial centre of the region.

Western analysts have criticised the Kazakh banking system for handing out loans to consumers too easily, for being poorly run and for owners using banks as personal slush funds.
Last year, the Kazakh government forced the merger of the two biggest banks in the country into one super-bank, Halyk Bank, under the ownership of Timur Kulibayev, the son-in-law of former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev. On top of this, the government has also spent an estimated $13b already on bailing out banks.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Markets: LAri pushes up to highest level since August

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DEC. 9 (The Bulletin) –The Georgian lari pushed up 2% to its highest level since mid-August, propped up by the Central Bank which sold $20m at the end of November. The Georgian Central Bank has been under pressure to intervene to stop the slide of the lari, which has fallen by around 9% this year. It now trades at 2.9225/$1. It started the year at 2.6651/$1.

The region’s other currencies were steady, including the Kazakh tenge. Its Central Bank left interest rates at 9.25%, saying that it needed to keep them relatively high in order to fight off inflation which it warned could be a problem. It is currently around 5.5% but could hit 6% in 2020, the Central Bank said.

Kazakhstan’s Central Bank also said that a widening current account deficit was also restricting its room for manoeuvre. It said that the deficit would widen to 3.1% of GDP next year from 2.2% this year.

The tenge was unmoved at 386.1/$1 but is still down from 381/$1 at the start of the year.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Armenia wants to arrest former Prosecutor-General

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DEC. 3 (The Bulletin) — Prosecutors in Armenia put out an arrest warrant for Gevorg Kostanyan, Armenia’s former Prosecutor-General, in connection with the ongoing trials of several former top officials, including former president Robert Kocharyan, for the shooting dead of 14 people at a post-election demonstration in 2008. Mr Kostanyan now lives in Moscow. Critics of the prosecution of the former senior officials said that the government of PM Nikol Pashinyan was pursuing political vendettas.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

To win business, foreign finance companies will need to open office in Uzbekistan

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DEC. 2 (The Bulletin) — As its capital markets develop, the Uzbek government plans to bring in a law that will force brokers arranging Eurobonds for domestic companies to operate from an office in Uzbekistan. Quoting Uzbek officials, Reuters reported that the plan was designed to force foreign banks looking to make a profit from setting up Eurobond deals, to invest in Uzbekistan and develop local expertise.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Italian company signs deal to give Turkmenistan technical support on gas pipeline

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DEC. 5 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s national oil and gas company Turkmengas signed a deal worth around $13m, with Italy’s RINA to provide technical support for the construction of a planned gas pipeline that will run 214km across the country. Italy has been courting Turkmenistan for projects and, last month, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov made a rare visit to the EU to meet with Italian leaders.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Uzbekistan to allow bookmakers to operate from 2021

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DEC. 6 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has signed into law a decree that will allow bookmakers to operate from 2021 in order to generate extra funding for sports development in Uzbekistan, media reported. Bookmakers have become a feature of Central Asian cities except in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan where betting has been banned.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Markets: Copper price rise fails to give KAZ Minerals a boost

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DEC. 9 (The Bulletin) — A 10% rise in the price of copper failed to give KAZ Minerals, the Kazakhstan-focused copper producer, much of a lift. Analysts said that the price rise was already, broadly, built into its share price.

It did, though, give Central Asia Metals a bit of a lift pushing it up 2% to 211p. It has been hovering around this level for some time.

In other metals news, Anglo Asian Mining, the Azerbaijan-centric gold producer, jumped up more than 6%.

Analysts said that the fall in value of Centerra Gold’s stocks was linked to its problems in Mongolia and not to the Kumtor mine in Kyrgyzstan.

Georgian banks both increased in value after the Central Bank intervened to prop up its ailing currency. They are sensitive to Georgian macro-economic news.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019