MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate to 7.25% from 7.5% after data showed that inflation was within its target range, Reuters reported quoting the Central Bank. Annual inflation in April measured 4.4% within the 2.5% to 5.5% bracket.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip around the South Caucasus, French President Francois Hollande visited Yerevan where he met Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. He visited the construction site of the long-delayed Carrefour supermarket and called on the EU to engage with Armenia despite its proposed accession to the Russia-led Customs Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s government said that it had drafted a road map for its entry into the Russia-led Customs Union (CU). The economic union also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus. Armenia also plans to join this year. Kyrgyzstan’s membership of the CU should also allow Tajikistan to join.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appears to have triggered a minor international row by snubbing a meeting of a former Soviet military group in favour of talks with a senior US diplomat.
Mr Nazarbayev had been due to travel to Moscow for a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a military group that includes Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.
Instead he decided to meet with the US deputy Secretary of State, William Burns, in Astana.
Officials were quick to deny there was a problem even though all the other CSTO leaders turned up in Moscow for a meeting chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr Nazarbayev was conspicuous by his absence.
Back in Astana, to make the situation even more uncomfortable for Mr Nazarbayev, diplomats told journalists that Mr Burns had asked Mr Nazarbayev to try and use his influence with Mr Putin to relax Russia’s pressure in eastern Ukraine.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Industrial output in Armenia fell by 2.8% in the first three months of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013, media reported quoting the National Statistics Service.
The statistics agency did not specify why industrial output had fallen.
Economist have warned that Armenia faces a difficult year. At the end of 2013 an IMF mission to Armenia said the economy faced major challenges.
“These include responding to the slowdown of growth in 2013, low private and foreign direct investment in recent years, and relatively high poverty and unemployment,” it said in a report.
This year Armenia has moved increasingly to position itself within Russia’s orbit. It has done this for two main reasons. Both strategically and economically it needs Russia’s support.
Armenia’s relative economic weakness is pushing it faster towards Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has told Iranian businessmen that they should increase investments in neighbouring Armenia, media reported, underlining strengthening relations between the two countries. Mr Hassan made the comments during a meeting with Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian who was visiting Tehran.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan officially appointed a new government which analysts said would be better placed to propel the country into the Russia-led Customs Union. The previous government resigned over its unpopular pension plans, a scheme the new government has watered down.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
APRIL 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officials from Russia’s military arrived in Yerevan for talks with their Armenian counterparts, media reported. According to reports, the talks focused on strategy, military planning and the potential joint use of force. Armenia and Russia have been pulling increasingly close together.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s state statistics agency released figures which showed that economic activity in the first three months of the year dropped by 0.2%, media reported. The biggest fall was in industrial output. Armenia’s economy is struggling with the after effects of the global economic crisis.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It may not have been the full admission of guilt that many people in Armenia want, but Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement on the death of thousands of Armenians in 1915 broke new ground.
Turkey’s leaders have always denied accusations of genocide against Armenians living in the east of the country when the Ottoman Empire started to break up.
But on this occasion, Mr Erdogan’s comments were seen as unusually conciliatory.
“Having experienced events which had inhumane consequences, such as relocation, during the First World War, should not prevent Turks and Armenians from establishing compassion and mutually humane attitudes towards one another,” media quoted Mr Erdogan as saying.
His reference to relocation was to the forced deportation of millions of Armenians from their homeland around Van.
Although some pressure groups in Armenia dismissed Mr Erdogan’s statement as politicking others were more accepting. The importance for Armenia cannot be understated.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
