MAY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s government lifted a month-long ban on foreign currency loans, official media reported. The country’s Financial Markets Supervisory Authority, which acts as a regulator, had forbidden banks from granting loans denominated in foreign currency on April 5 to try and strengthen the local manat currency.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – International ratings agency Moody’s said that the proportion of loans deemed non-performing in Azerbaijan had reached 20%, a sign of the country’s poor economic health.
Moody’s said that data clearly shows the growth of non-performing loans in Azerbaijan. At the end of 2014, the proportion of non-performing loans in Azerbaijan had been 4.5%. This rose to 9.1% by the end of the third quarter of 2015 and has doubled, again, in the past six months.
Non-performing loans are credits that banks have been unable to collect for over 90 days. Analysts deem this timeframe a problem because when a loan is not repaid within three months it is likely that it will not be repaid at all.
Moody’s downgraded Azerbaijan’s economy, giving it a negative outlook and predicting problems collecting outstanding loans.
“The manat devaluation triggered a flight out of local currency deposits, led to a rise in banks’ problem loans, and eroded capital buffers,” it said in a statement.
Azerbaijan’s economy is heavily dependent on oil and gas which has collapsed in value since August 2014. The Central Bank devalued the manat currency twice last year. It ended the year at half the value it had started 2015 at.
Moody’s said this has had a negative impact on both economic activity and the banking sector.
“Azerbaijan’s economic growth outlook remains weak,” Moody’s said. “Moody’s recently revised its 2016 growth forecast for Azerbaijan, expecting real GDP to shrink by 3.3%, compared to a previous forecast contraction of 0.7%, reflecting its expectation of a contraction in both the oil/gas and non-oil/gas GDP sectors.”
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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Grigory Marchenko, former chief of Kazakhstan’s Central Bank, bought an 8.3% stake in AGBank, a private bank in Azerbaijan. Chingiz Asadullayev, the bank’s chairman, increased his stake to 31.7%, up from 23.3%. The World Bank’s International Financial Corporation decreased its stake from 17.5% to 4.3%. Mr Marchenko left his post at Kazakhstan’s Central Bank in October 2013. Since leaving the role, Mr Marchenko has kept a low profile.
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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s ministry of defence said it will not hold its usual military parade in Astana to celebrate Victory Day on May 9, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. The ministry said parades should only be organised for round anniversaries. Last year, Kazakhstan held its largest-ever parade for the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II. Observers said the decision not to hold a parade is linked to budget constraints.
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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
MAY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Canadian miner Centerra Gold, owner of the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, once again said that it had not broken any rules in 2013 when it made a dividend payment . It was responding to a raid by police on the Kumtor office in Bishkek. Police were apparently sent to the Kumtor office specifically to search for any evidence of financial crime. Kyrgyzstan wants to increase its stake in Kumtor.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – According to Armenia’s Statistics Committee, foreign debt increased by 1.5% at the end of March, reaching $4.4b. Total debt also grew by 1.5% to $5.2b. The Committee said debt/GDP ratio will measure 49.4% by the end of the year. Debt/GDP ratio is a common measure to assess the health of a country’s economy.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -DUSHANBE– Regional officials in Tajikistan are imposing strict regulations on the appearance of youngsters they allow to meet President Emomali Rakhmon when he visits, media reported, exposing what critics say are heavily stage-managed processes designed to flatter the Tajik leader.
According to reports, Shahnoz Niyozova, a student from the northern town of Mastchoh was barred from meeting Mr Rakhmon when he visited for Navruz celebrations in March because she was not sufficiently tall or Aryan in appearance.
A leaked official letter from the town’s administration gave a rare insight into local administrations’ think.
“Those who wish to speak before the Leader of Nation must have beautiful Aryan appearance, be tall, and have sonorous diction,” it said.
Local officials generally handpick the most beautiful and eloquent youths to meet Mr Rakhmon. They recite poems or thank him for bringing peace to Tajikistan.
Most ordinary Tajiks regard these meetings, which are shown on national television, as a waste of time.
In Dushanbe, Firdavs, 28, told a Bulletin correspondent that it was hot air.
“No one really talks about stuff that matter, like economic and political issues,” he said. “From all the flatteries and poems, you would think that we do not have any problems.”
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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gold miner Polymetal said that its Lichkvaz project in Armenia holds 18.1 tonnes of gold, up 17% from a previous assessment. Last November, Polymetal bought the 75% stake it didn’t own in Lichkvaz for $9.7m, gaining full ownership in the project. Outside Russia, Polymetal operates in Armenia and Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – KEGOC, a mainly state-owned electricity distributor in Kazakhstan, said it will not pay out dividends for 2015, due to the company’s poor financial performance last year. In 2015, KEGOC posted a loss of 7.8b tenge ($23.4m). KEGOC was one of the best performers in the Kazakh Stock Exchange last year, with its shares gaining 47%. The government sold a chunk of KEGOC at the end of 2014, as part of its so-called People’s IPO.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian government said it would issue ID cards free-of-charge between May 26 and June 26, in an effort to prepare voters for a parliamentary election in October. Georgia’s electronic ID cards generally cost 30 lari ($13.6). The government is pushing for voters to have the correct identification documents to showcase its transparent electoral environment.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
