DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh miner KAZ Minerals said it had produced its first copper from the Aktogay project in east Kazakhstan. KAZ Minerals,previously known as Kazakhmys, forecast that the Aktogay project will produce 15,000 tonnes of copper/year over the next decade.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Inflation in Kazakhstan to the year ending Nov. 30 measured 12.8%, the state’s statistics committee said. The sharp prices rises show the impact of the tenge devaluation on the economy. The main inflation driver has been food prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil prices fell by 2.3% to $43/barrel of Brent crude this week.
Tethys Petroleum shares jumped 15% in one day on Dec. 2 to 4.88p, but fell later in the week to close at 4.50p on Friday, a 5.9% increase over the last week.
Roxi Petroleum shares fell sharply to 7p on Friday, down 10% from last week.
Gold prices rose by 2.7% this week to $1,086/ounce, which, together with positive industrial news, propped up the region’s principal gold miners.
Kyrgyzstan-focused miner Centerra Gold gained around 6% this week on the Toronto Stock Exchange, closing at 7.61 Canadian dollars on Friday.
After announcing a new financing deal for its gold deposit in Armenia, Toronto-listed gold miner Lydian International shares gained 30% in just two days. Lydian share price then fell back to 0.27 Canadian dollars on Friday.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Austrian Airlines, Austria’s flag carrier and full-owned subsidiary of German Lufthansa, will stop flying to Azerbaijan from January 2016 because of low demand. With the termination of the Austrian Airlines route, there will be no more direct flights from Austria to Azerbaijan. Austrian Airlines told the Trend news agency it may consider resuming the air link in the future.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan officially joined the World Trade Organisation. The deal to join the WTO will force changes to the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dutch marine engineering company Van Oord said it signed several contracts with Kazakhstan for a total value of $500m. Van Oord representatives accompanied the Dutch PM Mark Rutte during his official visit to Astana. One of the main projects will be to expand the port in the town of Prorva on the Caspian Sea coast near Atyrau in north-west Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP, the British operator of Azerbaijan’s largest oilfield, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), said in a statement that production in the first three-quarters of 2015 showed a decline of 2.4% compared to last year. ACG’s oil production is vital for the Azerbaijani economy. In the first nine months of this year, ACG averaged 640,000 barrels/day, against 655,700 barrels/day last year. Maintenance work in Q3 2015 slowed production.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s somoni currency fell to its lowest ever level of 7/$1 just as the Central Bank was bringing in draconian new rules which will shut all independent exchange kiosks within two months.
So far this year, the somoni has lost 31% of its value. The Central Bank has previously admitted that it is on the verge of running out of money, having spent its reserves propping up its ailing currency.
The Central Bank issued a statement saying that the remaining 763 currency exchanges would be closed over the next few months and that people would only be allowed to make currency exchanges through the banks.
Ordinary Tajiks have seen this before. In April, the Central Bank issued a similar edict which closed half the exchange booths in the country. It didn’t stop the currency slide, though.
Between April and the end of November, the somoni fell from 5.8/$1 to 6.7/$1, a fall of 15.5%.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — After nearly two decades of negotiations Kazakhstan joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a move that pleased Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev but also pressured the Eurasian Economic Union to cut its import tariffs.
It has been a long-held ambition of Mr Nazarbayev to secure WTO membership for Kazakhstan and he scheduled a state-of-the-nation address on the eve of the accession to hail it as “a milestone in the history of independent Kazakhstan.”
But Kazakhstan’s WTO membership will have wider implications.
Kazakhstan is the first member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) to enter the WTO since the Kremlin- led trade bloc came into existence on Jan. 1. This means Kazakhstan’s bilateral agreement with the WTO will effect the entire EEU.
The EEU includes Russia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan — which joined the WTO before the EEU existed — and Belarus which is not a WTO member.
The WTO accession document specified that the new rules to which Kazakhstan has committed should also apply to the rest of the EEU.
“There are 23 commitments which contain measures to be undertaken by Kazakhstan and/or the competent bodies of the EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union),” the WTO said in Kazakhstan’s accession documents.
This means that the EEU’s high import tariff regime will have to be lowered to meet the agreement that Kazakhstan signed up to.
Fortunately, complying with WTO rules appears to be in line with the EEU’s aspirations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in October 2014 that the EEU would adapt to work with the WTO and in October 2015 EEU heads of states said they wanted to harmonise their tariffs to Kazakhstan’s new commitments under the WTO.
Molly O’Neal, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University, said reducing the tariff gap between the WTO and the EEU was one of the most important implications of Kazakhstan’s WTO membership.
“Kazakhstan had already agreed [with the WTO] to binding its tariffs on certain products at levels below the common tariff of the EEU,” Ms O’Neal told the Bulletin.
WTO accession should also mean dropping domestic regulations that favour Kazakh companies. This is particularly important in Kazakhstan’s extractive sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an effort to prop up its manat currency, Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said it has spent nearly 60% of its currency reserves. Azerbaijan’s Central Bank held $6.8b at the end of October, down from $13.8b on Jan. 1. Azerbaijan devalued the manat by a third in February but this hasn’t stopped the slide.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
