JAN. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s foreign trade dropped by 20% in the year to the end of November, the state’s statistics agency said. In particular, the data showed that imports into Armenia had dropped by 26% to just under $3b, showing the impact of the current economic downturn.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Remittances to Armenia fell by 22% in November 2015 compared to November 2014, media reported quoting the Central Bank. The majority of the remittances came from Russia which is labouring under a recession triggered by the fall in oil and Western sanctions.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Security forces in Armenia arrested two more people, including Garnik Markarian, leader of a small, obscure opposition party, for allegedly being part of a group plotting a series of assassinations. In November, security forces in Armenia raided a house in Yerevan and arrested 10 people for allegedly being linked to the assassination plot. In the following weeks, at least 12 more people were arrested.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least 11 people have died of H1N1 Swine Flu in Armenia, media reported quoting the ministry of health. The ministry of health said that this did not equate to an epidemic, although there are another 80 people in prison suffering from the flu. Swine flu worries governments around the world because it can spread and has previously triggered epidemics.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
DEC. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate by one percentage point to 8.75%, its lowest level for 11 months, because of a slowdown in inflation. It said that annualised inflation for the 12-months to the end of November measured 0.6% compared to 1.3% a year earlier. Slow global economic growth and low commodity prices have stalled prices in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
DEC. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — ArmOil, a privately-owned Armenian oil company, will finance the construction of the first oil refinery in the country, a move that would make Armenia less dependent on Russian refined products.
The company will pay for the $35m refinery, which would be built in Yeghvard, a town 20 km north of Yerevan.
Karen Chshmarityan, Armenia’s minister of economy, said the deal will include the construction of a storage facility and a small refinery.
“At the initial stage the company will build a storage facility for 4,000 tonnes of oil products and then equip it with a laboratory, and in 2016 the company will build a small refinery,” Mr Chshmarityan said.
ArmOil, owned by a Russian-Armenian group of businessmen, was founded in 2013 and does not publicly disclose company data.
Armenia has wanted to build an oil refinery for more than a decade. From 1999 to 2007, Russian energy company Gazprom said it was considering building a refinery but the plan was scrapped.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
JAN. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US online streaming service Netflix expanded its operations to 130 new countries, including those former Soviet states of South Caucasus and Central Asia. The expansion will give customers from Armenia to Tajikistan access to popular US TV shows through their internet connection.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Bern to discuss peace plans for the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, their first meeting since 2014. There was no sign of any tangible progress from the Bern talks.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The trial has started of Valery Permyakov, a Russian conscript accused of killing seven members of the same family in January. The murders shocked Armenia and strained relations with Russia. Russia keeps a major military base in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with local media, Samvel Karapetyan, the Moscow based billionaire who bought Armenia’s electricity distribution network earlier this year said that he thought the business could become profitable without massive states subsidies and, also, that he regarded himself as a long-term investor.
Mr Karapetyan had surprised people by buying ENA (Electrical Networks of Armenia) in September only a few weeks after thousands of protesters had demonstrated against proposed electricity prices rises. He bought ENA from Inter RAO UES, a Russian utilities company that wanted to exit the market.
“Electric Networks of Armenia is a good company and has been active for a long time and it will, now, become considerably better managed by us,” he said.
He scorned the suggestion that he’d been placed under pressure to buy the company or that he wanted to buy a major public company to help his brother, an MP, become PM.
Perhaps most importantly, Mr Karapetyan hinted that he wouldn’t be looking to raise prices for electricity soon.
“We aren’t thinking about margins yet. We will not be thinking about it for five years certainly.” he told the mediamax.am website.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)