JAN 4 (The Conway Bulletin) — Brandy production in Armenia, something of a bellwether for the state of the wider FSU economy, increased by 41% between January and end-November to 27.9m litres, official statistics showed. This comes on top of a 27% increase for the same period in 2016 compared to 2015. Powered by Russia and oil prices, the FSU economies are recovering from a slump in 2014-16.
— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
DEC. 29 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan is in talks with Russia’s Rosatom to commission building two new nuclear power stations, media reported. Uzbekistan currently relies primarily on gas-fired power stations for its electricity. It is still some way off commissioning a nuclear power station but it has signed various memorandums of understanding with Russia on nuclear power. Relations between Russia and Uzbekistan have improved after Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over as president in 2016.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN 2 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, a man known for his autocratic ways and snap decision-making, ordered police to fine people still driving black cars. Quoting an opposition website, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that Mr Berdymukhamedov had ordered a blanket ban on dark coloured cars. Mr Berdymukhamedov is given to grandiose statements and displays of power. In 2017 he was filmed giving his government a gym session and teaching special forces how to attack IS militants. He has also been filmed giving his subordinates a dressing down and he has said that he wants an outright ban on smoking by 2025.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN 2 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan cut power supplies to northern Afghanistan for two days after, media has reported, the Afghan authorities refused to pay an increased fee for electricity. Power supplies were renewed after Turkmenistan agreed to delay price increases by a month. Turkmenistan’s economy has been hit hard by a drop in energy prices since 2014.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
TBILISI, JAN 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — — A court in Tbilisi sentenced former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili to three years in prison, in absentia, for abusing his power and trying to cover up the 2006 murder of a banker.
The sentence will pile more pressure on the authorities in Ukraine where Saakashvili, who says that the charges are politically motivated, is leading demonstrations against Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Georgia wants Saakashvili extradited. He left Georgia in 2013 after the end of his 10 years term in power. A year earlier his party, the United National Movement party (UNM), had lost a bitter parliament election to rivals, the Georgian Dream. Since then, the Georgian Dream has accused various members of Saakashvili’s former government of abuse of power, corruption and murder. Georgia’s allies have warned the authorities not to use their powers to pursue vendettas.
A statement on the court’s website said: “The city court of Tbilisi has delivered a guilty verdict for abuse of power against Mikheil Saakashvili and given him four years in custody as punishment, reduced by one quarter within the framework of an amnesty law meaning that the final punishment will stand at three years in custody.”
Essentially the court said that Saakashvili was guilty of trying to cover up the 2006 murder of banker Sandro Girgvliani who was found dead shortly after arguing with a Georgian government official in a restaurant.
Saakashvili, whose stock has fallen both in Georgia where support for his UNM party has slumped, and overseas where his backers have been increasingly concerned about his erratic behaviour, replied on his Facebook page. He said that the Georgian prosecutor’s verdict was driven by Mr Poroshenko and his arch-enemy Russian President Vladimir Putin who want to see him in prison.
The 50-year-old Saakashvili had been the darling of the West when he led a peaceful revolution in Georgia in 2003, even persuading US President George W. Bush to visit in 2005. A reckless war with Russia in 2008 undermined his golden-boy aura, though.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek officials said that they were going to introduce a new label, Uztexile, that will only be given to clothes that meet the highest ethical, environmental and manufacturing techniques, the chairman of the industry association Uztekstilprom, Ilkhom Khaidarov, told media. The new label appears to be another attempt to improve Uzbekistan’s image for cotton. It is a major cotton producer and wants to start processing and exporting an increasing amount of its crop.
— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN 2 (The Conway Bulletin) — m2, a subsidiary of BGEO, bought a 50% stake in what it described as a boutique hotel in Tbilisi for $4.1m (Jan. 2). The unnamed hotel is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2019 . BGEO is the investment arm of Bank of Georgia and is being spun off into a separate listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2018. Tourism in Georgia is booming. The sector is concentrated on Tbilisi and its rise has spurred a hotel-building boom.
— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
DEC. 29 (The Conway Bulletin) — Inflation in Azerbaijan should measure between 6% and 8% in 2018, the Central Bank said. In the past couple of years, inflation in Azerbaijan has been measured in the double digits as the economy fights a sharp economic downturn and a currency devaluation that wiped 50% off the value of the manat in 2015/16.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN. 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian lari yo-yoing showed no sign of stopping as it came off recent highs to fall 1.2% in the period from Dec. 22. On Dec. 22, the Georgian lari had been valued at 2.534/$1 compared to its current value of 2.589/1. It finished the year at 6.6% higher than its 2017 starting value.
The other big mover over the Christmas period was the Kyrgyz som. It rose 1.2% to 68.93/$1 and finished the year nearly 0.5% stronger against the US dollar.
Indeed only two currencies out of the eight in the Central Asia and the South Caucasus region were weaker on New Years eve 2017 then they were on the first trading day of the year.
The Uzbek authorities effectively devalued their soum currency in September when they released it from its various US dollar pegs. It immediately lost half its value to trade at around 8,100/$1 and has stayed there ever since.
The other losing currency of 2017 was the Tajik somoni. Pushed down by bad fundamentals and a failing banking system it finished the year 12% lower at 8.8277/$1.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tourism to Georgia boomed in 2017, the head of Georgia’s National Tourism Administration Giorgi Chogovadze told media. The growth in tourism has been one of the biggest drivers of the Georgian economy this year, analysts have said, and much of this tourism drive is coming from the Middle East. While Mr Chogovadze said that tourism numbers from Europe were up around a third, from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran the numbers had more than doubled.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin