Tag Archives: inflation

Kyrgyzstan avoids energy rate rise

SEPT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Energy tariffs will rise in Kyrgyzstan, but only for certain users, the country’s energy minister told parliament.

Kyrgyzstan’s electricity, at $0.1 per Killowatt/hour (kw/h), is cheaper than the cost of its production and 1-1/2 times cheaper than in Tajikistan, the former Soviet country with the next cheapest electricity.

But government’s attempts to explain this fall on deaf ears. Ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ejected from power in 2010 following substantial energy hikes that were subsequently reversed by the interim government that took power.

The current increases, target users of three-phase- systems that are used to heat private houses. They will pay 0.02 USD per kilowatt/hour.

These targeted increases will not provide the funds required to repair a failing grid, and will be insufficient to prevent scheduled electricity shutoffs during the heating season this winter. The Toktogul reservoir, that feeds a Hydroelectric plant powering most of the country is at its lowest level since the Bakiyev period.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)

Gas price in North Kyrgyzstan to drop

SEPT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The price of gas in north Kyrgyzstan will drop by up to 40% because of extra supplies, the head of Gazprom, now owners of Kyrgyzgaz, Alexei Miller said according to media. Although Mr Millar’s comments will be welcomed in the north, caution should be added. The dangerous north-south divide in Kyrgystan may be increasing.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)

Petrol supplies drop in Kazakhstan

AUG. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Reports from the regions said that queues up to a kilometre-long have been forming outside petrol stations as motorist try to re-fuel their cars.

In the northern city of Uralsk only four of 11 petrol stations were serving motorists without vouchers.

A combination of low refining capacity while upgrades are made; the devaluation of the tenge currency, which has made imports more expensive; restrictions on the quantity of imports have reduced petrol supplies.

Officials have said that they are working to bring the situation under control but frustrations threaten to bubble over.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazrbayev relies, to some degree, on the people becoming increasingly rich and comfortable for his popularity. If this starts to reduce, or become visibly impaired, his popularity may drop.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)

Petrol shortages have worsened in Kazakhstan over the past few months.

Inflation climbs in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Inflation in Kazakhstan edged up to 7.1% for the year to end-August, the top of the Central Bank’s bandwidth. The Central Bank aims to keep inflation between 6% and 8%. Central Asia’s economies have been under pressure from the sanctions on Russia. Inflation increased by 0.4% in August.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)

Armenia authorities worry about electricity

JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Concerned about possible unrest connected with electricity price increases, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan has ordered his policy chiefs to investigate whether it can soften the price rises for less well-off families, media reported.

Last month Armenia announced that it would increase the price for electricity by 10% form Aug. 1, its first price increase in two years.

Opposition politicians have said that the price increase will trigger inflation across the country and that this is just the first of several price planned price rises.

Armenia’s government has already had to negotiate through a difficult year.

A government resigned because of public unhappiness over its pension reform plans, economic growth estimates have been downgraded because of sanctions on Russia and now an electricity price increase threatens to erode the government’s popularity further.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

House prices rise 21% in Kazakhstan

JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The cost of buying a home in Kazakhstan continues to rise. The latest figures from the national statistics agency showed house prices had increased by 21% in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2014. Policymakers worry that the Kazakh housing market is hitting a bubble.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Prices fall in Georgia

JULY 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Inflation in Georgia fell 0.9% from May to June, the national statistics agency reported. The biggest fall was in food and non-alcoholic drinks. The South Caucasus have seen a drop in overall prices over the last few months.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Tajik electricity prices to rise

JUNE 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan will increase its electricity prices in July by 15%, media reported. This is the first electricity price increase for two years and may trigger frustration. One media outlet quoted a Tajik official saying prices had to rise because of the poor financial position of the state energy producer.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Cognac sales fall in Armenia

JUNE 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The impact of sanctions on Russia is hitting all the economies of the South Caucasus and Central Asia but none more so than Armenia.

Armenia is particularly reliant on Russia for both financial support and as a market for its export. Last month, the Armenian Central Bank said it would cut interest rates for the third time this year to a four year low to try and curb falling inflation.

The latest inflation numbers show just how much work the Central Bank needs to do to prop up the economy. Armenia’s statistics agency said that inflation for the first half of the year was 4%, at the bottom end of its range.

But even this figure hides the really worrying data. Average prices in June fell 1.8% against May.

For more evidence of Russia’s faltering economy hitting the more outlying regions of the former Soviet Union, cognac is as good a place to look as any other. Armenian cognac is famous around the former Soviet Union and Russia is its biggest export market.

The latest data showed that cognac production fell for the first five months of May by 11.1% to just over 5.5m litres compared to the same period in 2013.

Although no official explanation has been given, the message is still fairly clear.

“In the first quarter of 2014 Armenia exported to Russia half the amount of cognac compared with the the same reporting period in 2013,” an Armenian business website reported. “They [Russian cognac importers] are in an unstable financial situation and do not know what will the political conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)

Tajikistan’s meat price rises

JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – President Emomali Rakhmon and key figures in his regime have criticised an “artificial” spike in the price of meat during the holy month of Ramadan.

As Ramadan began, Tajik media reported a jump in the price of a kilo of meat from $6-7 to $8-9. Other products saw smaller increases. Last Ramadan saw similar jumps, suggesting collusion in the country’s urban markets, where costs are highest.

Mr Rakhmon’s attack on the meat cartels should be understood less as a defence of religion — an embarrassing video of him dancing drunk at his son’s wedding became an internet sensation when it was leaked in May 2013 — and more as sensitivity over price changes that could precipitate instability. GDP is expected to grow by 7% this year, but inflation, at 7.7% for the first half of this year, is more than keeping up.

“Prices for petrol are lower than they have been in recent years, there is enough feed for the animals and the price of meat should not be rising,” said Mr Rakhmon.

The Mayor of Dushanbe, Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev, backed Mr Rakhmon’s stance emphasising the need to punish “shameless” butchers working out of the capital’s main bazaars.

Food assumes a special importance during the month of Ramadan when daytime fasting gives way to night time gorging. The Day of Eid holiday after the fasting period is associated with elaborate feasts.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)