Tag Archives: economy

Prices in Armenia fall, again

MAY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Annualised inflation in Armenia for April measured -1.9%, the Statistics Committee said, the fifth consecutive month it has recorded price drops. Food prices shrank by 4.5%, while non-food prices remained stable. Price deflation is a sign of slow economic activity, a direct consequence of the economic malaise that has hit the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Remittances from Russia, which play an important role in these economies, have dried up.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Georgian wine exports grow

MAY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia exported 11.6m bottles of wine in 2015, an increase of 45% from 2014, its national wine agency said. Total revenues earned from wines increased by 15% to $26.9m. Wine is an important export for Georgia. It has been heavily marketing its wine and its status as one of the original wine-making countries. Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan are the biggest markets for Georgian wine.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Western Uzbekistan faces salary problems

MAY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Last year, teachers in Nukus, in western Uzbekistan, received chickens, potatoes and carrots in lieu of their salaries because the authorities had run out of cash to pay them, RFE/RL reported. Wage arrears and liquidity shortages have become commonplace in Uzbekistan. Last week, teachers in Tashkent complained that they had not received salaries for two months. An economic downturn has hit Uzbekistan and its neighbours in Central Asia hard.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Editorial: Uzbek state salaries

MAY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Paying salaries on time to its armies of state employees is one of the Uzbek government’s central tasks. If it doesn’t, it means there are some serious cracks in the system.

According to news reports, arrears for salaries in Uzbekistan now extend to a couple of months for teachers in schools and colleges.

There is a heavy economic crisis blowing through Central Asia and the South Caucasus, but where is the government’s money in Uzbekistan?

Some sources say it is being funnelled into short-term construction and renovation projects ahead of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation coming up in June.

Last year, a leaked letter sent from the Central Bank said that the budget was short of around $620m.

Reports from Turkmenistan, another reclusive country, said that the government had been paying salaries in kind or with vouchers to some of its employees for months.

These are tough times for many Central Asians.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Workers complain in Kazakhstan

MAY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A union of metal workers at the ArcelorMittal Temirtau factory in central Kazakhstan said it would appeal to the Prosecutor General against the company’s plans to cut benefits and, ultimately, lay off workers. According to Zhaktau, the union, several workers have had their full-time contract changed into freelance project work. The union also said the company plans to sack 700 workers by the end of the year. ArcelorMittal Temirtau did not comment.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Cash shortage spreads to Uzbek capital

MAY 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Several employees at state-owned companies in Tashkent have not received payment since February, according to sources interviewed by Eurasianet. This is a sign that a shortage of hard currency, previously confined to the provinces, has spread to Uzbekistan’s capital. Wage arrears cause distress among the population. Last year, a leaked letter from the Central Bank revealed a shortfall of 1.5 trillion sum ($517m at the official rate) in the state budget.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Georgian CBank intervenes, again

MAY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank intervened in the currency market for the sixth time in two months, in an effort to dampen the appreciation of its lari currency. The Central Bank bought $20m, injecting lari into the market. The intervention came as the lari reached 2.21/$1, its strongest rate since July 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Kazakhstan’s CBank cuts interest rate as inflation begins to slow

MAY 5 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate by two percentage points to 15% because it said that inflation was slowing and the overall economic outlook was improving.

The consumer price index grew in April to an annualised rate of 16.3%, its highest since 2009, but the Central Bank said that the pace of inflation had slowed.

“Seasonally adjusted, annualised month-on-month inflation for each of the last three months was within the target range for the annual inflation set between 6% and 8%,” the Central Bank said in a statement linked to its rate change.

“A survey of households also showed that expectations of inflation have subsided as well.”

After months of poor economic data and a 50% devaluation of the tenge currency, any prognosis on Kazakhstan’s economy which is even vaguely positive will be seized upon and lauded. This is the first time in months that Kazakhstan’s Central Bank has shown confidence in its ability to control the money market, a sign that the worst period of a regional economic downturn might be over.

Still, the Central Bank did add a large dash of caution to its outlook.

It said that a potential downside risk to the economy was the “increased tenge-denominated high interest rate liabilities” held by commercial banks, which could put pressure on the financial sector. This is, essentially, a reference to bad loans.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s debt to GDP ratio grows

MAY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Foreign debt has outpaced GDP growth in 2015 in Kyrgyzstan and pushed up the debt/GDP ratio to 70%, Edward Gemayel, IMF head of mission, told a press conference. Mr Gemayel also said that GDP growth will be 3% in 2016, lower than the 3.5% it registered in 2015. Debt/GDP ratio is a sensitive issue in Kyrgyzstan. In 2014, the IMF said, the ratio was around 45%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Kazakhstan’s PVC imports fall

APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s net import of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a type of plastic, decreased by 21% in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the previous year. With a 99% market share, China is Kazakhstan’s main supplier of PVC. Declining imports are linked to Kazakhstan’s struggling petroleum-dependent economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)