FEB. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The price of wheat has jumped by 54% in Kyrgyzstan and 37% in Tajikistan since June 2010, the World Bank said. The Kyrgyzstan price rise is the largest in the world. Wheat makes up around 50% of people’s diets in both countries.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 28, published on Feb. 21 2011)
FEB. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia plans to hand out fuel coupons worth 20 lari ($11.3) and food coupons worth 30 lari ($16.9) to every family to ease pressure over price increases, President Mikheil Saakashvili said in his annual state-of-the-nation address. Inflation in January measured 12.3% according to the Statistics Committee.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 27, published on Feb. 14 2011)
JAN. 24 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s GDP will grow by 4-5% in 2011 against an earlier forecast rise of 3.1%, media quoted economy minister Zhanar Aitzhanova as saying. Inflation in Turkmenistan was 4.8% in 2010, Reuters quoted the state statistics agency as saying.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 24, published on Jan. 24 2011)
DEC. 26 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian think tank The Civilitas Foundation said 2011 would be a difficult year economically for Armenia. “Armenia’s economic growth will remain anaemic. Despite moderate global growth, there will still be lagging effects on Armenia’s economy,” it wrote in its annual report.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 21, published on Jan. 4 2011)
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.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 8, published on Sept. 23 2010)