Tag Archives: economy

Kyrgyz Central Bank to sell diamonds

NOV. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz Central Bank is spending so much cash trying to defend its som currency that it is considering selling off its stock of diamonds.

Tolkunbek Abdygulov, the Central Bank chief, said that the bank had already sold large amounts of gold and that silver and diamonds were next.

“We started selling gold this year, next year are going to add silver bullion to this and have discussed the options of even selling diamonds,” he said according to media reports. Mr Abdygulov didn’t say whether Kyrgyzstan held substantial diamond reserves or not.

The Kyrgyz Central Bank has intervened 22 times this year in the currency market. This week it spent another $7m defending the som which at one point fell nearly 5% to an all-time low of around 79/$1. After the Central Bank intervention it rose back to around 74/$1.

The Central Bank’s reserves have fallen from $2.2b at the start of the year to about $1.7b now.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Uzbekistan increases cement production

NOV. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has increased its cement production by 7% so far this year, media reported quoting industry executives (Nov. 24). They also said that they plan to add more capacity to their production. Uzbekistan is a net exporter of cement. It has become big business and is a major employer.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Armenian economic activity increases

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Economic activity in Armenia increased by 3.5% in the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period in 2014, media reported by quoting the statistics agency. The statistics agency also said that salaries had increased by over 9% during the same period, a reflection of the drop in the value of Armenia’s dram currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Currencies: Kyrgyzstan’s som, Georgia’s lari

NOV. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The only currency that moved substantially this week was the Kyrgyz som, which lost 2.3%, closing at 74/$1 on Friday.

The Kyrgyz Central Bank intervened heavily this week to prop up its currency, which looked like it was losing traction and could have spiralled downwards. During the day on Nov. 26, the exchange rate had surged to 77-79 som/dollar, which prompted the Central Bank to sell $7m in the currency market and enabled the currency to recover somewhat and move back to 74/$1.

Tolkunbek Abdygulov, the Central Bank chief, said this week the exchange rate was influenced by speculators.

All other currencies were stable.

In the South Caucasus, the Georgian lari maintained its level of 2.40/$1 and the Armenian dram was also stable at 480.8/$1.

In Central Asia, the Kazakh tenge floated at around 307/$1 throughout

the week. The Tajik somoni continued its gentle depreciation, and now trades at 6.7/$1.

The dollaruz.com website which monitored the Black Market rate for the Uzbek sum, appears to have closed.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Georgia makes bottle caps

NOV. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an attempt to revive old Soviet factories and boost industrial production, the Georgian government invested 4m lari ($1.7m) into a new company that will manufacture bottle caps. Geocap, set up under the Produce in Georgia state programme, opened its first factory this week. The government has invested over 350m ($146m) lari in industrial enterprises since the programme started in June 2014. Georgia’s drinks industry is growing and is becoming a major employer.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakh parliament approves budget cuts

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s parliament approved a budget designed to both limit spending during a period of low oil prices and target a national deficit that has crept up to a 10-year-high.

Perhaps with this in mind, the sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Ka- zyna announced plans to cap pay and close 33 of its 36 overseas offices and the Central Bank said that it would slow work on building a state-of-the- art data centre in Astana.

The government’s budget for 2016-18 acknowledged that economic growth had stalled and would measure only 1.2% this year, its lowest rate since 2009 — the height of the Global Financial Crisis.

It also specifically wanted to target a deficit which has grown to around 3% of GDP, its highest in the past decade.

Presenting the government’s budget, PM Karim Massimov acknowledged the severity of the economic challenge.

“On December 8, the government will adopt an anti-crisis programme for the next three years. We will unite all previous economic programmes under a new umbrella,” Mr Massimov told the Senate.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev later confirmed he will address the nation on Nov. 30 on plans to tackle to the growing economic malaise.

The new budget forecasts oil prices to remain within the $40- 50/barrel range and the tenge to remain stable at around 300/$1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Azerbaijani energy company releases gas figures

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR said it produced 5.76b cubic metres of gas in the first 10 months of the year, down 5.5% compared to last year. Oil and gas exports are vital to the Azerbaijani economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakhstan looks to Islamic finance

NOV. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Looking to boost finances, Kazakhstan said that it would launch its first sovereign Islamic bond, a sukuk, next year. Last week a source at the Central Bank said that Kazakhstan would probably aim to raise $1b through the sukuk. In 2012, the state-owned Kazakhstan Development Bank issued a $73m sukuk.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank files Q3 results

NOV. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Halyk Bank, one of Kazakhstan’s largest retail banks, reported increased net income in the third quarter of 2015 of 36b tenge, roughly a third larger than the third quarter of 2014. In US dollar terms, taking into account the devaluation of the tenge, Q3 2015 and Q3 2014 are roughly the same. Operating expenses grew by 12.7% in the first 9 months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014 because of wage inflation linked to the devaluation of the tenge.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Kyrgyz Central Bank buys som

NOV. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank bought another $14m worth of som to steady its value at around 73/$1, highlighting the currency’s fragility. The Kyrgyz som, like other currencies in the region has lost about a third of its value this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)