SEPT. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan plans to increase its gold reserves by a third next year, media reported quoting Shahmar Movsumov, executive director of SOFAZ, the state’s oil fund. Azerbaijan has been spending its oil wealth on gold, property, and foreign currencies.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has tripled cotton fibre exports to China to 300,000 tonnes, about half its total production, media reported.
The move is a snub to European and US buyers which have been lobbying to force Uzbekistan to drop its use of children to pick the cotton. It’s also another indicator of the deepening reach of China in Central Asia.
Cotton is important to Uzbekistan. It harvests around 3.3m tonnes of raw cotton a year and is the world’s second largest exporter.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s tour of Central Asia last month had focused on energy supplies and security issues. This deal, though, was apparently secured when he was in Tashkent.
After China, Bangladesh and South Korea are the biggest buyers, underlining how little leverage the West has with Uzbekistan over its cotton harvest.
The West’s push to stop Uzbekistan using children to pick cotton does, though, appear to have had some impact. Reports from Uzbekistan at the start of the cotton picking season said that the state-run plantations had now stopped employing school children to pick the cotton.
In September Uzbek authorities also allowed a team of monitors from the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the country to observe the cotton harvest, although human rights groups said they were still worried that the observers would only be allowed a blinkered view.
Their official report is widely anticipated.
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The price of a loaf of bread in Uzbekistan has risen by nearly 10% to 600 sum ($0.3), media reported. Reports said that an increase in utility tariffs across Uzbekistan had forced bread prices to rise. Bread prices also rose by 10% in September last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
OCT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked his Central Bank chief, Grigory Marchenko. Mr Marchenko had been head of Kazakhstan’s central bank since 2009. Mr Nazrarbayev didn’t give a clear reason for sacking Mr Marchenko. Former economy minister Kairat Kelimbetov was named as the new Central Bank chief.
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s finance ministry has approved an increase in electricity and gas prices, media reported. Reports quoted state-run Uzbekenergo saying electricity prices will rise by 6.95% from Oct. 1. Uzbekneftagaz said gas prices would rise by 8.5%. Utility prices have steadily increased in Uzbekistan, upsetting ordinary people.
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek government will invest $78m between 2013 and 2015 in the tourist sector around Tashkent, Uzbektourism told the Trend news agency. The number of tourists visiting Uzbekistan, mainly for the ancient Silk Road towns, has steadily increased. Officials want to double the number of hotel rooms in Tashkent to 2,800.
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will delay the issue of its long-muted $1b Eurobond until next year, Kuat Akizhanov, head of the ministry of finance’s borrowing department said in an interview with local media. Kazakhstan, which has not issued a Eurobond since 2007, has been talking about a sovereign debt issue throughout the year.
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia halved its prediction of foreign direct investment this year, a crucial pillar of the Georgian economy. In an interview with Reuters, Georgian finance minister Nodar Khaduri said that political uncertainty after a change of government in 2013 and a presidential election next month were worrying investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kim Kardashian, the 32-year-old Los Angeles-based ethnic Armenian, is best known across the globe for starring in a reality TV show. Now she’ll also be known, in some circles at least, for lending her name to Armenia’s inaugural sovereign debt issue.
Armenia’s $700m Eurobond issue on Sept. 23, unofficially dubbed the ‘Kardashian bond’, did rather well. This was Armenia’s first sovereign debt issue and a real test of investors’ confidence in the country and appetite for risk in the South Caucasus.
Armenia’s government had said it needed to raise the cash to pay back a $500m loan it borrowed from Russia in 2009 to weather the global financial crisis.
It’s been a busy, somewhat controversial, year for Armenia with a disputed presidential election in February and a surprise decision last month to eschew closer ties with the EU to instead join Russia’s Customs Union. The economy, too, has caused some concern with inflation hovering around 9%, far above the Central Bank’s target.
Regardless, investors warmed to Armenia’s Kardashian bond and the initial yield on the 7-year bond was shortened to 6.25% from 6.375%, according to Reuters.
Not a bad debut on the sovereign debt market for Armenia and Kim Kardashian.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
SEPT. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — DemirBank, one of Azerbaijan’s biggest banks, estimated its loan portfolio would grow by 16% by the end of 2014, Trend news agency reported quoting the bank’s deputy chairman Rauf Akhundov. Mr Akhundov’s assessment is another sign that Azerbaijan’s economy has recovered from the 2008/9 global financial crisis.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
