MARCH 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz som has lost nearly 5% of its value against the US dollar this year, media quoted the head of the Central Bank, Tolkunbek Abdygulov, as saying. Mr Abdygulov also said that he wanted to impose strict capital requirements for Kyrgyzstan’s banks
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 17 2015 (The Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s economy will probably grow by 1.5% in 2015 despite a downturn in regional conditions, Reuters quoted EBRD economist Dmitry Gvindadze as saying. He said Azerbaijan’s oil fund, worth $50b, had created a buffer that meant Azerbaijan could weather the economic storm.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 16 2015 (The Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon appointed his 27-year-old son Rustam to head up the Agency for State Financial Control, a government entity in charge of fighting corruption.
This is not the first public post Mr Rakhmon’s eldest son has held. Aside from local administration and nation-wide assignments he heads the country’s Football Federation and for a year was chairman of the Customs Service, a powerful government agency.
Mr Rakhmon is all-powerful having won a parliamentary election earlier this month which eliminated any pretence of a functioning opposition in the country.
Opposition groups have accused him of corruption and blatant nepotism. Other high-ranking officials have been accused of smuggling and drug running.
International observers have become increasingly exasperated with Tajikistan and Mr Rakhmon’s style of rule.
Mr Rakhmon barely acknowledges these accusations but promoting his son to head a senior government agency will hardly improve Tajikistan’s standing in the eyes of foreign investors and governments.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 16 2015 (The Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s GDP in January was nearly 17% lower than for the same month in 2015, the Central Bank said in its monthly report on the state of the economy.
In January, Azerbaijan generated receipts worth 3.63b manat ($3.46b) compared to 4.36b manat in January 2014. This means that Azerbaijan is slipping towards a recession.
The Central Bank slashed the value of the manat by 33% last month and most media in Azerbaijan, which is generally pliant and pro-government, spun the drop as a rise in real GDP because of the devaluation.
Many economists disagreed, though. Samir Aliyev, an economist at the Center for Assistance to Economic Initiatives in Baku, said this heavy drop in GDP is more evidence that the combined impact of the drop in global oil prices and also the downturn in Russia’s economy have hit Central Asia and the South Caucasus hard.
“We witnessed such a big drop only in 2008 and 2009 during the global economic crisis, when oil prices slipped down,” he said. “However, to call it a recession we should have numbers for at least three months.”
The trickle-down effect of the collapse in oil prices from the summer of 2014 — prices fell by around 50% — has only just begun to seriously dent Azerbaijan’s economy. January was the first month that GDP dropped.
Data from the Central Bank also showed that Azerbaijan’s non-oil economy — which international economists said needs to grow — increased by 5%.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 14 2015 (The Bulletin) – Former Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili said that he will launch a TV show, media reported. Although he will not host the show, he will be a semi-regular guest on it. His opponents have said that Mr Ivanishvili is trying to influence people through his TV appearances.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 13 2015 (The Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has agreed to buy two high-speed trains from the Spanish company Talgo, media reported. The Uzbek government is spending millions on updating its train network.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 18 2015 (The Bulletin) – The black flag of the extremist group IS has been seen flying in north Afghanistan close to the border with Central Asia, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. This is important because Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have both said they are worried about the Taliban moving north.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 13 2015 (The Bulletin) – Pakistan wants to increase energy cooperation with Uzbekistan, media reported, a potential boost for the Uzbek oil and gas sector.
Western energy companies such as London-listed Tethys Petroleum are gradually exiting Uzbekistan because of a worsening business environment.
Pakistan is also lobbying for Uzbekistan to participate in the TAPI pipeline project that would bring Turkmen gas to India, passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Uzbekneftegaz, the national oil and gas company in Uzbekistan, annually produces 63b cubic metres (bcm) of gas mostly for domestic consumption.
The government has a plan to increase both production and exports and to reduce wasteful use by 2020. The aim to export up to 16bcm by 2020 is well short of Uzbekistan’s regional commitments.
Notwithstanding the declining demand in Russia for Uzbek gas, China is asking for 10bcm and Pakistan’s demands might just be impossible to meet.
Furthermore, the TAPI project has proved to be a difficult one to realise and the timeline for its completion in 2017 is still under review.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 14 2015 (The Bulletin) – Pakistan’s president Mamnoon Hussein hailed talks with President Ilham Aliyev in Baku as a milestone in relations between the two countries.
Importantly for Azerbaijan, Mr Hussein underlined Pakistan’s support for Azerbaijan’s stance over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian-backed rebels have controlled the region since a UN-brokered 1994 ceasefire.
“We’ve always supported Azerbaijan’s stance, which we think is the right one,” he said.
Increasing support for its drive to win back the region of Nagorno-Karabakh is a key foreign policy plank for Azerbaijan.
Trade and diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan are currently light and Pakistan’s main interest is probably in securing much needed energy supplies.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 18 2015 (The Bulletin) – Ordinary Kazakhs have lost faith in the Central Bank and are expecting a tenge devaluation, media quoted Halyk Bank CEO, Umut Shayakhmetova as saying. She said the proportion of savings held in foreign currency had now risen to 70%. The Central Bank has promised not to devalue the tenge.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)