Tag Archives: economy

Armenia creates economic zone with Iran

JAN. 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia has created a so-called special economic zone on the border with Iran to try and boost trade with its neighbour. Announcing the deal, deputy economy minister Hovhannes Azizyan said that it was important to keep on building ties with Iran and that he hoped the SEZ would become a regional hub. Armenia and Iran have built up close trade links over the past few years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Remittance flows rise in Kyrgyzstan

JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz workers abroad sent back $1.83b to Kyrgyzstan in the first 11 months of 2016, an 18.6% rise on 2015, media reported quoting the Kyrgyz Central Bank. Remittance flows are vital for Kyrgyzstan and a recession in Russia has severely dented its economy. The Central Bank also said that remittances from Russia in November 2016 were a third higher than in November 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Azerbaijan’s Sofaz boosts state budget

JAN. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government will take $4b from its sovereign wealth fund, Sofaz, to spend on defending the value of the manat currency. A decree signed by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, called on the cash to be used to “ensure macroeconomic stability”. This is the second year running that Sofaz, now worth around $33b, has been a net contributor to the national budget. Azerbaijan has been severely hit by the drop in oil prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Inflation slows in Kazakhstan

JAN. 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Annualised inflation in Kazakhstan slowed to 8.5% in 2016, down from 13.6% in 2015, the country’s statistics committee said. The slow- down will be a relief to the Central Bank as it will give it increased room to use its monetary policy levers to try and induce more economic activity. The government’s inflation target has been 6-8%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakhstan Caspian pipeline exports increase

JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Exports via the Caspian Pipeline, which pumps oil from western Kazakhstan, around the Caspian Sea to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, rose by 4% in 2016, data released by the pipeline’s owner the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) showed. CPC’s main client is the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan. CPC’s biggest shareholders are Russia with a 24% stake, Kazakhstan with a 20.75% stake and Chevron with a 15% stake.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Markets: Turkish lira, Georgian lari

JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Turkish lira has started the year looking like the sick man of Emerging Market currencies. It dropped to an all-time low of 3.89/$1 on Jan. 10 before pulling back slightly. It has lost 25% in the past year.

The triggers for this are global unease over the incoming US president, Donald Trump, a strong US dollar and Turkey’s own domestic issues hinged around the anti- Gulenist purges currently sweeping through business and government.

The lira is a fragile currency and for the currencies of Central Asia and the South Caucasus, this is a problem. After Russia, Turkey is one of the biggest drivers of regional growth. Istanbul is a natural hub for businesses in the region. Inherent weaknesses in the lira could pull down the rest of the region. And these currencies are already looking weak with the Georgian lari looking under particular pressure. Since December it has surfed around all- times lows of 2.66-2.77/$1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Georgian Shilda to export 5m bottles of wine

JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shilda Wines, owned by former Georgian economy minister Vano Chkhartishvili MP, has made a deal to export 5m bottles of wine to China over the next three years. The deal is the largest ever struck by a wine producer with China. It highlights how important China has become to the Georgian wine market. China is the third biggest Georgian wine importer after Russia and Ukraine.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh Central Bank keeps rates steady

JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank held its key interest rate as 12% at its first monetary session of 2017 but hinted that cuts would come later in the year to boost economic activity. The challenge for the Kazakh Central Bank is to boost economic activity without undermining confidence in its tenge currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Data shows Kyrgyz trade with EEU has fallen

BISHKEK, JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s trade with other members of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) fell 18.6% in the first 10 months of 2016, the Russian news website gazeta.ru quoted an unnamed source at the Kyrgyz statistics committee as saying.

This data, if confirmed when the official statistics are released, highlights Kyrgyz officials’ concerns that joining the EEU has had a negative impact on its trade. They have said that the EEU favours the larger countries and has hampered Kyrgyzstan’s trade with China.

“In the first 10 months of 2016, trade turnover, the import-exports of Kyrgyzstan, with the EEU member states comprised of $1.575b,” the unnamed source said. “Compared to the same period in 2015, this figure was 81.4%, in other words it was a drop of 18.6%.”

The data also goes against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s insistence that Kyrgyzstan’s trade turnover has increased since it joined the EEU.

Last month in a very public show of his frustration with the EEU, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev delayed signing a key customs agreement between the five member states at a ceremony in St Petersburg.

Kyrgyzstan joined the EEU in August 2015 but its businessmen and MPs have complained of excessive bureaucracy and barriers to trading with China that the EEU has imposed.

Many analysts said Kyrgyzstan had been coerced into joining the EEU.

The other EEU member states are Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Azerbaijan’s Central Bank to scrap exchange rate corridor

JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said that it will scrap a 4% exchange rate corridor to allow the manat to float freely. The exchange rate corridor had been designed to keep the manat stable but it has come under increased pressure because of the drop in oil prices and economic problems in Russia. The manat is now trading at around 1.82/$1. In June it traded at 1.49/$1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)