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Currencies: Azerbaijani manat, Kazakh tenge

FEB. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh tenge added another 1% on to its value this week, bolstered by a rise in oil prices, and the Georgian lari added 2%, a rise that analysts attributed to a general improvement in global economic sentiment.

It was a different story, though, across the South Caucasus, where the Azerbaijani manat lost another 0.8% to fall to 1.7925/$1. This is frustrating for the Central Bank as the manat had looked good to break 1.7445/$1, the level it reached at the start of February – its strongest since November.

In any case, the manat has recovered since the end of January when it bottomed out at 1.95/$1.

But the Chairman of Board of Directors of Financial Markets Supervision Authority, Rufat Aslanli, told media that the manat couldn’t rely on oil prices to pull it out of its negative spiral. “Oil price has impact on sustainability of our economy, but not on the exchange rate of dollar,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Azercell dodges handing out data for 2016 performance

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FEB. 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azercell, the Azerbaijan-based subsidiary of Sweden’s Telia, appeared to dodge releasing meaningful numbers for its performance at its full year 2016 press event, instead issuing a statement that discussed its contribution to the Azerbaijani economy and its spending on social projects.

Since 2011, Azercell has published online its results but this year was different. There was no results page with a breakdown of how the company had performed. Instead, an unashamedly PR-esque statement extolled the company’s virtues.

Requests to the Azercell press department for the full year results went unanswered, adding to the impression that Azercell was trying to dodge releasing the data. Azerbaijan’s economy is under pressure at the moment and shrunk by an estimated 3.8% in 2016. A drop in oil prices and a recession in Russia has hurt the oil-backed economy badly and forced the currency to devalue by 50%.

There was a hint in Telia’s own full year results in January, that Azercell had had a tough 2016.

Telia said that net sales in reported currency from its Eurasian unit had fallen by 25% because Ncell in Nepal had been sold and because of “lower net sales in Azercell in Azerbaijan due to negative currency development.”

It then said earnings had dropped in 2016 partly because of “margin erosion in Azercell in Azerbaijan”.

Telia has been looking to sell its units in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region because of reputational damage inflicted by its Uzbek unit over a corruption scandal.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Georgian Airways to fly to London

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FEB. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Airways said that it would restart a direct flight to London Gatwick from Tbilisi. The announcement appears to be a reaction from Georgia Airways to news released earlier this year that Hungary’s Whizz Air would fly from Luton Airport, near London, to Kutaisi, Georgia’s second city. British Airways scrapped its direct flight to Tbilisi in 2013.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Turkmen authorities release RFE/RL reporter

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FEB. 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that its journalist Khudayberdy Allashov and his mother, Kurbantach Arazmedova, had been released from prison and given a three-year suspended sentence for carrying chewing tobacco. Human rights activists cheered their release from prison, as they feared that a custodial sentence was likely. Under the terms of his release, though, Allashov is banned from using communication equipment, making it impossible for him to return to work as a journalist.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

BP’s oil production in Azerbaijan falls

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FEB. 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil output from BP’s projects in Azerbaijan, the mainstay of the country’s economy, fell to 630,000 barrels per day in 2016 from 634,000 in 2015, it said. This is bad news for Azerbaijan which is reliant on BP’s output to generate most of its income. Pres. Ilham Aliyev has personally extolled BP to boost production at its Azeri-Chirag- Guneshli fields.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Kyrgyz president complains about Kazakhstan

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FEB. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with Euronews, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev directly criticised his neighbour Kazakhstan for imposing what he described as an economic blockade in 2010. He was discussing why Kyrgyzstan joined the Kremlin-lead Eurasian Economic Union, a trade group that has grown unpopular in Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan responded to the accusation of an economic blockade by filing an official complaint. Relations between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have become fraught over trade rows.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Georgian MPs consider smoking ban

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FEB. 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgians MPs are considering strengthening new laws which limit smoking in public places, media reported. A law being brought in from July will force restaurants and hotels to ensure that a certain proportion of their floor space is designated to be no smoking. But some MPs are now arguing that this law does not go far enough and that a blanket ban on smoking in public places is needed.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Georgian party demands inquiry into gas deal

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FEB. 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The United National Movement (UNM) party which recently split called for a parliamentary investigation into a deal between Georgia and Russia over new gas supplies. Few details of the deal, which shifted the emphasis away from a barter deal linked to gas transits to Armenia to monetary payments, have been released. The deal was made at the end of last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Centerra expects to have to pay Kyrgyz fines

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BISHKEK, FEB. 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its 2016 results Toronto-listed Centerra Gold said that it expected to have to pay all or part of a set of fines handed out to it by Kyrgyz environmental bodies over what it had previously described as an attempt by the government to pressure it into ceding a larger stake in the Kumtor gold mine.

Centerra Gold is locked in a battle with the Kyrgyz government over ownership of the Kumtor mine. Kyrgyzstan owns a 32.7% stake in Centerra Gold but it wants to own a direct stake in the mine which generates about a tenth of its GDP.

Last year Centerra launched an action at an international arbitration court after a Kyrgyz judge ordered cash generated by the Kumtor mine to stay in the country.

“If the Company were obligated to pay these amounts, it would have a material adverse impact on the Company’s future cash flows, earnings, results of operations and financial condition,” Centerra said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Tajik president sack deputy finance minister

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FEB. 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon fired the country’s deputy finance minister Umed Latifov in a move that observers have said probably hints at in-fighting among Tajikistan’s elite over a murky deal between Russia’s Rusal aluminium producer and Talco, Tajikistan’s aluminium smelter and its most important economic asset. No official reason was given for sacking Mr Latifov who had been in the job since July last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)