Tag Archives: GDP

Azerbaijan’s GDP shrinks by 3.9%

DEC. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s GDP was 3.9% lower in the nine months to the end of October this year compared to the same period in 2015, the country’s statistics committee reported, confirming the country’s sharp economic downturn. A collapse in oil prices and a recession in Russia have dragged down Azerbaijan’s oil dependent economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Georgia’s economy to grow in 2017

DEC. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In Georgia’s governmental budget presented to and passed by parliament, officials said that they targeted GDP growth of 4% next year. Despite the tough economic conditions, Georgia has managed to engineer some positive economic growth in 2016, unlike its neighbours, Armenia and Azerbaijan, who have been hard hit by the drop in oil prices and a recession in Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

Armenian economy shrinks

NOV. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s economy shrunk by 2.6% in the third quarter of the year, the country’s statistics agency said, confirming the poor economic sentiment in the country. In the third quarter of 2015 Armenia’s economy had grown by over 3%. Armenia is reliant on Russia which is suffering from a harsh economic downturn, linked to a fall in oil prices that has tipped it into recession.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Azerbaijan’s GDP shrinks in Jan-Oct

NOV. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s finance minister Samir Sharifov admitted in a parliamentary session that the country’s overall GDP had dropped by 3.7% between Jan. and Oct. this year. He also said, and this is important as Azerbaijan has said it wants to diversify away from oil and gas production, that the non-oil part of the economy had shrunk by over 6%. Azerbaijan has been badly hit by the fall in oil prices and a recession in Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Economic growth halves in Georgia

NOV. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s year-on-year growth for the 12 months to the end of October more than halved to 1.3%, the Georgian statistics agency said. Georgia’s exports have fallen and its currency has weakened heavily in a regional economic downturn that has stunted growth and worried governments. For the 12 months to the end of October 2015, Georgia recorded GDP growth of 3%. Georgia, though, is faring better than its South Caucasus neighbours. Both Azerbaijan and Armenia’s economies have shrunk.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Armenian economy is broken, says new PM

NOV. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s economy is virtually broken and needs major reform if it is going to survive, the country’s new PM Karen Karapetyan told Bloomberg in an interview.

Parachuted into the job in September after a series of crises pushed trust and credibility in the previous PM to near breaking point, Mr Karapetyan is the former Gazprom executive and former mayor of Yerevan, who President Serzh Sargsyan has tasked with transforming the Armenian economy.

Corruption and the dominance of a handful of well-connected oligarchs, who control most of the lucrative import businesses, need to be countered, Mr Karapetyan said.

“We’re proposing the most rapid change that’s possible,” he said. “We will create an even, competitive, level- playing field.”

And the ruling Republican party needs to do something fairly radical if it is going to have any chance of holding on to parliament after an election in May. In July this year, hundreds of young Armenians clashed with police in support of a group of gunmen who had captured a police station, highlighting frustration with the government.

In the interview, Mr Karapetyan also said that he wanted to cut government spending to halve the state deficit, a difficult objective if you also need to win votes.

“We also have external debt growing faster than the GDP growth and growing faster than revenues,’’ he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Tajikistan’s debt to GDP ratio rises

NOV. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a speech to parliament to present the government’s budget plans for 2017, Tajikistan’s finance minister Abdusalom Kurboniyon said that the government’s debt measured 36.3% of its GDP, slightly higher than last year. Tajikistan’s debt ratio has been rising over the past couple of years because of an economic downturn triggered by a fall in oil prices and a recession in Russia. In 2014, Tajikistan’s debt to GDP ratio had been around 28%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Georgia’s GDP grows by 1.5%

NOV. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s GDP grew by 1.5% in September, according to the country’s Statistics Committee. Total growth in Q3 2016 amounted to 2.2%, mirroring last year’s pace. Still, the government predicts a 3% growth this year and a 4% increase in 2017. In 2015, Georgia recorded a 2.8% GDP increase, its weakest since 2009.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

GDP growth slows in Turkmenistan

OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s GDP annualised growth slowed to 6.2% in the first nine months of the year, down from 7.5% during the same period in 2015, the Turkmen state news agency said. Turkmen official statistics are considered unreliable and the information leaking out of the country points to severe economic hardship. The data is valuable in highlighting the economic slow- down that Turkmenistan and its neighbours are dealing with.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Azerbaijan admits its GDP will shrink in 2016

OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan said that its economy would shrink in 2016 by 2.8%, a major reversal from its earlier insistence that it would avoid a recession and post growth of 1.8%.

Answering questions posted by Reuters, the Azerbaijani economy ministry blamed sluggish oil prices and low global growth for the GDP revision. Last week government data showed Azerbaijan’s GDP had contracted by nearly 4% in the first nine months of 2016.

“The growth at 1.8 percent was projected in 2015, when the International Monetary Fund had been projecting the oil price at $64/barrel,” Reuters quoted government officials as saying. Oil prices are now around $50/barrel, double the price in January.

Most economists have been predicting a recession in Azerbaijan this year and the reluctance to downgrade its own growth estimate has been seen by many as fanciful thinking that will damage the credibility of the Azerbaijani government.

According to the World Bank the last time that Azerbaijan’s GDP contracted was in 1995.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)