MARCH 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Central Bank raised its key interest rate to 7% from 5% to support its manat currency, the second interest rate increase in less than a month. It increased rates on Feb. 15 to 5% from 3%. The manat currency has lost 50% of its value in the past year. This is the highest rate since 2009.
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(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)
FEB. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s Central Bank raised its key interest rate by 1 percentage point to 9%, its first rise since December 2014. It said it needed to try to protect the value of its somoni currency which has lost around half its value over the past year. A recession in Russia has hit Tajikistan hard, as its economy relies on remittances sent back by workers living in Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Central Bank raised its key interest rate for the first time since 2011 to try to bolster its ailing currency. It raised its key interest rate to 5% from 3%. The manat has lost 50% of its value over the past year as oil prices fall. Oil is Azerbaijan’s key export.
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(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)
FEB. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 8.5% on Tuesday, its lowest level in a year, to try and maintain inflation. The Central Bank has previously said that, overall, prices for the 12- months to the end of January had fallen by 0.4%, despite a month-on- month rise of 2.2% in January compared to December.
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(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)
FEB. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Central Bank raised interest rates by 1 percentage point to 17%, its first monetary policy move for three months. The Kazakh tenge has been sliding in value and the Central Bank has at times appeared powerless to stop this. It has slowly increased interest rates but to limited effect.
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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)
JAN. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Central Bank increased interest rates on tenge held bank deposits by four percentage points to 14% in an attempt to defend the value of its currency. The Central Bank has maintained different interest rates on tenge and US dollar deposits for several years. US dollar deposits now earn interest of 2%, down from 3%.
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(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)
DEC. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate by one percentage point to 8.75%, its lowest level for 11 months, because of a slowdown in inflation. It said that annualised inflation for the 12-months to the end of November measured 0.6% compared to 1.3% a year earlier. Slow global economic growth and low commodity prices have stalled prices in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
DEC. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank increased its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 8%, its highest level since 2012. The move preceded a heavily telegraphed quarter of a percentage point increase by the US Federal Reserve that piled more pressure on Emerging Markets. Georgia’s interest rate measured 4% at the start of 2015.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank chief Giorgi Kadagidze hinted at another interest rate rise to control inflation. He said inflation would peak next year before dropping back. At the start of last month, Georgia’s Central Bank increased its key interest rate by 0.5% to 7.5% — it’s highest level since 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank decided to keep its interest rate unchanged at 10% for the third month running because of slowing inflation. It also said that its reserves had fallen by 12% this year as it tried to defend its currency.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
