APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s minister for diaspora, Hranush Hakobyan, called for Armenians based abroad to support the Armenian economy by opening up bank accounts. The Armenian diaspora acts as an important support for Armenia’s economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh media reported a 19% drop in sales of US dollars, euros and roubles at foreign exchange points in March compared to February, suggesting a slowdown of the near panicked drive by ordinary Kazakhs to sell out of tenge when they thought a devaluation was imminent.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015
APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Azerbaijani state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan raised a $200m loan from 18 financial institutions. This is important because it means Western banks are willing to lend to Azerbaijani state-owned institutions despite the economic downturn.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is covertly cutting salaries for state employees to try and pay for the rising cost of the European Games which are scheduled to be held next month, the Eurasinet website reported.
It quoted unnamed employees of Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee saying that they had had their bonuses scrapped because of the Games.
Eurasianet said the State Customs Committee declined to comment and that the ministry of taxes denied the allegations.
The 16-day European Games, which starts on June 12, is a major set-piece event for Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. He wants to use sport to promote the country and to distract from criticism of his human rights record.
The problem is that, although Azerbaijan has enough oil- generated wealth to survive a regional downturn in economics, cash is getting tighter and paying for the multi-billion- dollar European Games is getting harder.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s lari currency dropped to a 16-year low against the US dollar despite efforts by the Central Bank to prevent the fall.
The Central Bank said it had sold off another $40m of its reserves to prop up the lari. This was the fifth intervention of $40m this year by the Central Bank despite an earlier pledge by its head, Georgy Kadagidze, not to sell its reserves to defend its value.
Even so, the lari fell to 2.3 against the US dollar its lowest level since 1999. Since November, the lari has lost around a third of its value.
A fall in the price of oil and a drop in the value of the Russian rouble have hit the economies of Central Asia and the South Caucasus hard.
Georgia has reported a 27% drop in exports in the first quarter of 2015 compared to a year earlier and has cut its projected GDP growth to 2% from an earlier estimate of 5%. Remittances from Russia have fallen by around 20%.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Speaking at a regional conference, Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan said he forecast economic growth in 2015 despite predictions of the opposite. Media quoted Mr Abrahamyan as saying he thought the economy had grown by 2.5% in Q1.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev dismissed rumours a devaluation of the tenge was now imminent after he had won another election. “There are no such plans,” he said at a news conference. The tenge has come under enormous pressure to devalue because of a fall in oil prices and a drop in the Russian rouble.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank held interest rates steady at 11% because of slowing inflation, media reported. Previously the Central Bank has aggressively raised interest rates to try and curb inflation generated by the falling value of the som.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A move by Tajikistan’s government to ban exchange booths from dealing in currencies has pushed currency trading into the black market and reduced the value of the Tajik somoni further, Eurasianet reported. The somoni has lost around 17% of its value this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has made plans to deal with a sustained slump in demand from Russia for its cars, media reported quoting an Uzbek government source.
It said that sales would remain relatively low for its cars until 2019.
This is important because demand from Russia is the main driver of Uzbek car production. This is centred on the GM Uzbekistan plant in Andijan, east Uzbekistan.
GM Uzbekistan, which is 25% owned by US carmaker GM and 75% owned by the Uzbek government, recorded a 38% slump in car sales to Russia in 2014. It also recorded a slump of around 60% in the first quarter of the year, according to reports.
News agencies said sales to Russia between January and March were 5,411 cars from GM Uzbekistan compared to 12,858 in 2014.
Like other countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, Uzbekistan is strug- gling to cope with the severe economic collapse over the past few months, triggered by a collapse in oil prices and sanctions on Russia. The Russian economy is a vital engine for the wider regional economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)