NOV. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Workers at the Black Sea port of Poti, in Georgia, ended their strike after management agreed to raise their wages by 20%. The workers had gone on strike on Nov. 1. Poti is a vital transit point along the transport corridor that shifts goods and energy supplies between Europe and Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 113, published on Nov. 16 2012)
Nov. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Central Asia has increasingly become an economic battlefield with neighbouring nations competing for influence. China, Russia, the EU and the US all have major interests in the region. Now Japan has made a relatively bold move.
At a meeting in Tokyo with officials from the five Central Asia states, Japan’s foreign minister, Koichiro Gemba, pledged to invest $700m in the region.
Mr Gemba was vague on detail. He said that Japan’s main aim was to promote regional stability which would help promote peace in neighbouring Afghanistan.
He might be right of course, but no doubt Japan also has its eye on the region’s abundance of natural resources, in particular Kazakhstan’s supply of rare earth metals. These metals are needed in hi-tech industries, just the sort that sustains Japan’s economy.
Many countries have been vigorously searching for supplies of rare earths since China, which had produced around 90% of the world’s supply, said in 2010 it would reduce exports.
Earlier this month a joint Japanese-Kazakh plant opened in northern Kazakhstan producing rare earths. Japan is its main market. Japan’s pledge to invest $700m in Central Asia is likely to be connected to accessing the region’s natural resources.
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(News report from Issue No. 113, published on Nov. 16 2012)
NOV. 7 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Workers at the Black Sea port of Poti in Georgia have been striking since Nov. 1, media reported. The port is a vital transit point for the trade route connecting Central Asia and the South Caucasus to Europe. In 2008, the Georgian government sold a stake in Poti Port to Ras Al Khaimah, part of the UAE.
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(News report from Issue No. 112, published on Nov. 9 2012)
OCT. 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s economy will only grow by 5.4% this year because of poor demand for its metals, the Kazakh minister for economic development, Erbolet Dosayev, said according to media reports. The Kazakh government had earlier hoped for economic growth in 2012 of around 7%.
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(News report from Issue No. 110, published on Oct. 26 2012)
SEP. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon has told Tajiks to hoard two years worth of food supplies ahead of winter, media reported. The presidential office quoted Mr Rakhmon as saying that a global rise in commodity prices and a winter that is expected to be harsh, means it is vital to stock up on supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 106, published on Sep. 28 2012)
SEP. 10 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s economy shrunk by nearly 5% in the first eight months of 2012 because of problems at its Kumtor gold mine, Reuters reported quoting official statistics. Kumtor accounts for 12% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP. This year the company running the high altitude open-pit mine said ice flow moves would knock production.
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(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)
AUG. 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s economy grew by 11% in the first seven months of the year, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said on national television. The figures confirm the massive gas-powered growth rate of the country although it does mark a slight slowdown against the 14.4% recorded in the same period last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
AUG. 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bucking a trend, Armenia’s Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged at 8% at its latest meeting.
Although the Central Bank said inflation has slowed to the bottom of its anticipated spectrum, it warned that expected grain price rises posed an inflationary risk. Drought in the major grain growing countries has pushed up prices across the world.
The last time Armenia’s Central Bank cut interest rates was September 2011. While neighbouring Central Banks have cut interest rates in tandem with a slowing global economy, Armenia has maintained a steady course.
Kazakhstan has cut its interest rate four times this year to a record low of 5.5%. Neighbouring Georgia cut its interest rate by 0.25% in April, May and June.
Explaining its thinking, the Armenian Central Bank said inflation measured 2.3% for the 12 months to the end of July. This is just below its inflation target but is a significant jump from the month before and, according to the Central Bank, shows inflationary pressure building.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
AUG. 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s biggest economy, cut its interest rate to 5.5% to try and stimulate growth. Emerging economies around the world have been fighting stalling inflation with interest rate cuts. This was Kazakhstan’s fourth rate cut in 2012. It comes into effect on Aug. 6.
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(News report from Issue No. 099, published on Aug. 3 2012)
JULY 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state oil fund plans to start investing cash in global equities, media quoted Shakhmar Movsumov, its executive director, as saying. From September, the fund will invest $600m in shares listed on the MSCI Index. UBS and State Street will advise the fund.
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(News report from Issue No. 098, published on July 27 2012)