SEPT. 27 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan banned the export of buckwheat, a favourite cereal in the former Soviet Union, because of shortages caused by a summer drought. It also said the drought had hit its grain harvest which would only be 13.5m tonnes this year, the bottom end of previous forecasts.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 9, published on Sept. 30 2010)
SEPT. 27 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will start investing part of its $20b oil fund in equities for the first time to boost returns, the fund’s chief investment officer Israfil Mammadov told Bloomberg. He declined to say what proportion of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) would be invested in equities.
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(News report from Issue No. 9, published on Sept. 30 2010)
SEPT. 16 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will keep its manat currency pegged to the US dollar and the euro while its economy improves, the head of the Central Bank, Elman Rustamov, told Bloomberg. Azerbaijan pegged the manat’s exchange rate in March 2009 during a downturn in the global economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 8, published on Sept. 23 2010)
SEPT. 23 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s economy is reliant on oil and gas. It has rebounded this year after a heavy slump in the world economy and oil prices combined in 2009 to knock growth.
In August, the ratings agency Moody’s upgraded the Azeri banking sector to stable from negative, reflecting Azerbaijan’s improving economy. Moody’s said the Azeri economy remained vulnerable to external shocks but “the banks are also benefiting from relatively stable macroeconomic conditions”.
In an interview with Bloomberg, the head of Azerbaijan’s Central Bank, Elman Rustamov, echoed this sentiment. He said Azerbaijan’s economy would grow by 4-5% this year compared to a 14% fall in 2009 but that he wanted to keep Azerbaijan’s currency, the manat, pegged at 0.803 to the US dollar for the rest of the year.
Mr Rustamov said the manat peg was important to stop the currency strengthening too quickly and damaging the non-oil sector’s recovery.
The manat has gained 12.5% against the dollar since redenomination in January 2006.
Oil makes up 93% of Azerbaijan’s exports and the average price per barrel has been 37% higher this year compared to 2009, Mr Rustamov said. Oil production will remain at around 50m tonnes this year, roughly the same as 2009. In 2008, Azeri oil production was 44.5m tonnes.
Mr Rustamov said that inflation would rise to about 10% this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 8, published on Sept. 23 2010)
SEPT. 8 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan unexpectedly doubled its industrial output forecast for 2010 to 7.5% because of a sharp boom in production in mining and processing industries such as chemicals, foods and machine-building. In the first 6 months of 2010 Kazakh GDP grew by 8%.
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(News report from Issue No. 6, published on Sept. 9 2010)