SEPT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Currency reserves held by Armenia’s Central Bank have dropped to $1.646b from $1.703b at the start of the month, despite it insisting that it was not intervening in the currency market to support the dram. A year earlier, the CBank’s currency reserves measures $1.75b.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Chinese manufacturer Poly Technologies said that it had started construction at a new rubber plant in Uzbekistan. During the ceremony at the Angren Special Industrial Zone, Gulomjon Ibragimov, Uzbekistan’s deputy PM said the project would improve rubber production capacity in the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — UK-based Divisa Capital bought Laboratory of Financial Technologies, an Armenian financial services provider, for an undisclosed amount. Mushegh Tovmasyan, CEO of Divisa Capital, said that he wanted to use the company’s new Armenian foothold to target the Eurasian market.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Remittances to Armenia from abroad dropped by 38.8% in the first eight months of the year to $114.8m compared to the same period in 2014 , the Armenian Central Bank said. Russia provides nearly 80% of all Armenia’s remittances. It has been coping with the fallout from a collapse in oil prices and sanctions.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Google launched youtube.kz, a Kazakh language version of video streaming service YouTube. Maxim Machkasau, development manager for Google in Kazakhstan, said: “YouTube is very popular in Kazakhstan, especially among people aged 18-24 years.” But social media has come under scrutiny in Kazakhstan for being used by radicals to spread extremist Islamic propaganda.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s hard to believe that Kazakhstan has really moved to a free-floating currency market. The roller-coaster of the past 40 days has hit the Central Bank’s credibility. Investors and citizens alike are wary of the potential consequences of their tenge-denominated portfolios.
And over the last two weeks, the Central Bank has sold around $1b to keep the tenge away from the frightening 300/$1 floor it momentarily touched on Sept. 16.
The tenge has since traded at around 271/1$. In August, the Central Bank chose to move away from a dollar peg of around 188/$1 to avoid draining its reserves. Now, it seems, the tenge has found another, unofficial, peg.
In other countries, the situation was fairly stable this week. The Kyrgyz som kept its rate through the week at around 69/$1. The Georgian lari held below 2.39/$1.
In Tajikistan, the Central Bank seems to be allowing a weekly 0.5% decline for the somoni, now at around 6.5/$1.
And finally, in a recent Central Bank survey, 41% of Tajikistan’s population is in favour of letting the somoni float free.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A joint European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and EU project will make 2.5m euros available to small and medium sized enterprises in Turkmenistan. The project will run for three years and give Turkmen SMEs access to business advisers as well as funds.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili met with former British PM Tony Blair during his trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, media reported. Mr Blair apparently accepted an invitation from Mr Garibashvili to visit Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Olympic Committee reportedly appointed Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and a potential successor, as its head. Earlier this year Almaty lost to Beijing in its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. The bid boosted both the profile of Kazakhstan and also of its Olympic Committee.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Islamic Jihad Union, an Al- Qaeda splinter group, said that it now controlled part of the border zone with Tajikistan and Afghanistan. This claim could not be independently verified but the media did say that the Islamic Jihad Union had reportedly released photos of armed men around the Amu Darya river on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)