APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek authorities have increased the price of utilities by roughly 10%, media reported. For most of last year, reports from Uzbekistan have documented price rises and inflationary pressures. These have been frustrating parts of Uzbekistan’s population.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Central Bank ordered commercial banks to stop taking wire transfers from Russia’s Zolotaya Korona, threatening the country’s remittances lifeline.
Remittances are crucial to Uzbekistan. According to the World Bank, remittances from Russia account for roughly 16% of Uzbekistan’s GDP.
This figure, although, large still underplays the importance of remittances to the Uzbek economy.
They are an essential lifeblood to the much of the population, feeding entire families and beating away poverty.
It makes the unexplained announcement by the Uzbek Central Bank all the more puzzling. Zolotaya Korona, which means Golden Crown, is the most popular system for Uzbeks working in Russia to wire cash home.
Forcing users onto another system, creates an additional barrier.
A couple of days after issuing the ban, the Uzbek Central Bank said it banned Zolotaya Korona because it thought that it was in poor financial health.
Officials at Zolotaya Korona, which is based in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, have declined to comment on the Uzbek Central Bank’s decision.
In January, around a dozen Azerbaijani banks cut their links to Zolotaya Korona. They said that deals with the Russian company just weren’t profitable enough.
In 2012, Armenia’s Central Bank banned Zolotaya Korona from operating there because it was stopping some people using its services.
Whatever the reason for the Uzbek Central Bank’s sudden ban on Zolotaya Korona, the poor in Uzbekistan will suffer.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The price of fuel in Kyrgyzstan has increased by as much as 6.7% since the beginning of the year, media reported. An official from an industry lobby group blamed increased import prices from Russia for the rise. Fuel price rises, especially sharp ones, can generate discontent.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will launch new rules by end-2015 aimed at stemming the flow of cash from businesses to offshore accounts, media quoted the head of analysis at the Kazakh financial police, Olzhas Bektenov, as saying. Kazakhstan has been under pressure to tighten its anti-money laundering regulations.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s economy grew only a sluggish 1.6% in the year to end-February, media reported quoting the state’s statistics agency. Most international organisations have predicted GDP growth of around 5% for Azerbaijan this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s GDP rose 7.1% in Q4 2013 compared to the same period in 2012, the statistics office said. The data is more evidence that Georgia’s economy is bouncing back after a sluggish 2011 and 2012. The Central Bank increased interest rates last month for the first time since 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Underling just how dependent Azerbaijan is on oil exports, the Central Bank published data that showed that 95% of its exports in 2013 were energy related. It exported $26.9b worth of oil and $1.6b worth of processed oil products, mainly to neighbouring Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — TALCO, the Tajik aluminium smelter and the country’s largest single industrial asset, has denied an earlier ministry of finance statement that accused it of being on the brink of bankruptcy, local media reported. TALCO is controversial because of its links to Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Several thousand people demonstrated against the government’s new pension scheme that means that people born after 1974 have to pay 5% of their salary into a central pot. The demonstration was the biggest against the scheme for some time, indicating how passionately people feel about it. There have been several protests this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Already the biggest customer of Turkmen gas, China has said it wants to boost its export of various products into Turkmenistan. Media reported a visit by a Chinese delegation to Turkmenistan, underscoring the close ties between the two countries.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)