Tag Archives: economy

EBRD to loan for buses in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering a $65m loan to Astana LRT to buy 200 modern buses, media reported. Astana, the Kazakh capital, has been growing , putting major pressure on its public transport systems.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Coal production drops in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 14 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Coal production in Kazakhstan dropped by 6.7% in the first eight months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, data released by the Eurasian Economic Commission showed.

The Eurasian Economic Commission is the administrative arm of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Union is a trade bloc set up by the Kremlin that includes Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.

The data showed a fairly pronounced slump in coal production in Kazakhstan, while the other countries maintained output.

The slump in Kazakhstan’s production may be yet another indicator of the impact of the economic recession. Kazakhstan relies heavily on coal to fire many of its larger industrial centres.

If order books are down, demand for coal and production would also slump.

Georgian winegrowers protest against falling prices

SEPT. 11 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Several hundred farmers protested in the ancient winemaking region of Kakheti in eastern Georgia, demanding that the government increase subsidies for harvested grapes.

Eyewitnesses said that the demonstrations were passionate and angry but peaceful, although some protesters brawled with police after tension boiled over. There were no reports of any injuries and only three people were detained but the unrest does show how the former Soviet Union’s economic malaise is deepening.

A grape farmer attending the protests told broadcaster Rustavi2 that they will not back down, but that people are afraid.

“I demand a rise of prices. People are afraid of this government, they do everything to keep us quiet. What should we do?” grape farmer Murtaz Gorkhelashvili said.

The price for a bunch of grapes has fallen by 40-55% this year because of a fall in wine export to Russia and Ukraine.

Western-imposed sanctions on Russia and a sharp fall in oil prices have tipped its economy into recession. A civil war has heavily dented Ukraine’s economy.

In 2014 wine production accounted for 2.5% of Georgia’s GDP, a higher proportion than France, even, where wine makes up around 0.9% of GDP.

Independent consultant and freelance wine writer Caroline Gilby described how important wine is to Georgia’s economy and also to its national identity.

“Wine is economically critical to this small country with its limited natural resources,” she said.

The government subsidy, an election promise by the Georgian Dream coalition in 2012, of an extra 0.35 lari per kilo of white grapes and 0.15 lari per red grapes for farmers is considered insufficient by the protestors.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Brazil MPs visit Azerbaijan

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A group of parliamentarians from Brazil visited Azerbaijan, promising to boost ties. The meeting is important for Azerbaijan as it works to widen its diplomatic reach, especially in the so-called BRIC countries which economists have said will power global growth.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Kazakh Mangistau receives inflow of migrants

SEPT. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Almaty and the oil-rich region of Mangistau in the west of the country are the only regions in Kazakhstan receiving a significant inflow of people looking for work, data published on the ranking.kz website reported. The data also showed that most of the people moving to these areas settled in villages rather than cities.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Russia’s RAO wants to sell Armenia electricity network

SEPT. 17 2015, YEREVAN (The Conway Bulletin) — The owner of the Armenian Electric networks company, Russia’s Inter RAO Holding, said it wanted to sell the company to Cyprus-registered Liormand Holdings Limited, triggering more bad feeling towards the company which many people already blame for trying to raise electricity prices.

It’s unclear why RAO would want to sell the Armenian electricity provider to a Cyprus shell company, but Russia does have a background in using this type of scheme to muddy companies’ ownership structures.

Whatever the reasons, the depth of bad feeling towards RAO and confusion about what the deal means for ordinary people was clear on the streets of Yerevan after the announcement.

Anna Khachatryan, a student, said: “We don’t know anything about Liormand Holdings Limited. Is it a good manager?”

Earlier this year thousands of people protested in Yerevan against a proposed 17% price rise, eventually forcing the government to back down and drop most of the plans.

The 1in.am news website wrote in a commentary, that the deal to sell the company was problematic.

‘The sale of the electricity networks does not give the answers of existing important economic and political questions, but, in fact, raises many new questions,” it wrote.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Kazakhstan’s Mangistau region receives inflow of migrants

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Utility prices to rise in Uzbekistan

SEPT. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government said it would increase all utility prices from Oct 1, a decision prompted by the regional economic malaise.

The state water supply company said drinking water rates would increase by 8% and hot water by 5% in Tashkent; electricity prices will increase by 8%; gas prices by 7.3%.

The announcements will pile extra pressure onto ordinary people who are already dealing with price inflation for food and petrol as well as a drop in their own spending power because of a major fall in remittances.

Data from the Russian Central Bank showed that cash sent back by Uzbek workers had halved in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2014.

Inflation has been creeping up across Uzbekistan. Earlier this month, the government said that it was going to increase public sector salaries by 10%.

Unofficial reports from Uzbekistan have said that this injection of cash into the economy has also inflated food prices by 30%.

Higher tariffs will pose especially serious challenges to the Uzbek population given the approaching winter coupled with plummeting money remittances from abroad, the increasing staples and services prices as well as anticipated shortages of fuel, gas and electricity.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Markets: Inflation rallies in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan

SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — On inflation, the data looks worse in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, compared to other economies which have managed to keep prices flat. In the period between Jan.-Aug. 2015, prices in Armenia grew by 4.8%, in Tajikistan by 3.2%, in Azerbaijan by 3.8%, according to their statistics committees.

Despite the steady growth in consumer prices, the region’s economies are containing inflation. For a comparison, inflation in Russia reached 15% in August.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Kazakhstan’s CBank halts tenge slide

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Central Bank intervened in the money markets to stop the tenge from dropping below 270/$1. Kairat Kelimbetov, the Central Bank chief, had told the FT earlier in the week that the Bank would not intervene again after it ditched a peg to the US dollar last month. The tenge is now trading around 266/$1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)