MAY 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s Central Bank cut its benchmark interest rate to 4.25% from 4.5%, the third cut this year, because of falling price data, media reported. In January, Georgia’s interest rate had been set at 5.25%. Data shows steady consumer price deflation since then, however, although the government still targets annual inflation of 3%.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
MAY 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has invited banks to manage a $1b debt issue, its first since 2007, finance minister Bolat Zhamishev told media. The announcement is significant as Kazakhstan is cash-rich from oil production; the debt issue will act as a barometer of the market’s interest in Kazakh debt.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
MAY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazmunaigas, Kazakhstan’s national energy company, sold Eurobonds worth $3b in April, media reported quoting its press service. The relatively low interest on the debt — $2b 30-year Eurobonds sold with an interest of 5.8% and $1b 10-year Eurobonds with 4.45% — shows the attractiveness of lending to Kazmunaigas.
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(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
MAY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prices in Georgia continue to fluctuate wildly. In the 12 months to end-April, the national statistics agency reported that Georgia’s economy experienced average deflation of around 1.7%, mainly pulled down by a large drop in fuel and food prices. Three years ago, annualised inflation was around 14%.
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(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Poaching will kill off sturgeon in the Caspian Sea within four years, media quoted the Kazakh deputy Prosecutor-General, Andrei Kravchenko, as saying. Sturgeon roe is more commonly known as caviar and is a lucrative commodity.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A man protesting against a proposed increase in the retirement age for women hurled two eggs at the Kazakh minister for labour, Serik Abdenov. The Kazakh government wants to raise the retirement age for women to 63 from 58.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has doubled its foreign trade figures in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2012, media quoted the Turkmen ministry of economy as saying. Since becoming president in 2007, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has pushed to increase the country’s client base for its huge gas supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev welcomed Kyrgyzstan’s drive to join the Russia-led Customs Union, which already includes Kazakhstan and Belarus, but said the Kyrgyz government still needed to sign a number of documents. Mr Medvedev was talking to press after meeting Kyrgyz economy minister Temir Sariyev in Moscow.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOFAZ, Azerbaijan’s sovereign wealth fund, aims to spend $1b on property in Australia and Asia this year as it diversifies away from Europe, Shakhmar Movsumov, a senior director, told Reuters. SOFAZ made a splash in the international property market in December when it spent $600m in London, Paris and Moscow.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Underlining China’s increased dominance across the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, a senior Chinese economic official said that trade with Azerbaijan increased by 17.6% in 2012. Zhang Wei, chairman of China’s Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that China-Azerbaijan trade was worth $1.2b in 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
