Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakh Central Bank to stress test the sector

JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Clearly worried about the solvency of its commercial banks, the Kazakh Central Bank said it intends to stress test the sector in H1 2017. Oleg Smagulov, the deputy chairman of the Kazakh Central Bank, told the kapital.kz website that it wanted to limit banks’ expose to bad debt. Last month it cancelled KazInvestBank’s licence to operate and unnamed sources also told Bloomberg that Kazkomertsbank, the biggest Kazakh bank, may be looking for a government loan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh court imprisons 7 men for terrorism

JAN. 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Aktobe, north-west Kazakhstan, sentenced seven men to prison for terrorism related offences. The state prosecutors said that the group had been planning a series of attacks against Russia and Russians. Central Asian governments have become increasingly wary of attacks on their territory and of Islamic radicals using the region as a prime recruiting ground.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Inflation slows in Kazakhstan

JAN. 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Annualised inflation in Kazakhstan slowed to 8.5% in 2016, down from 13.6% in 2015, the country’s statistics committee said. The slow- down will be a relief to the Central Bank as it will give it increased room to use its monetary policy levers to try and induce more economic activity. The government’s inflation target has been 6-8%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakhstan Caspian pipeline exports increase

JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Exports via the Caspian Pipeline, which pumps oil from western Kazakhstan, around the Caspian Sea to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, rose by 4% in 2016, data released by the pipeline’s owner the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) showed. CPC’s main client is the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan. CPC’s biggest shareholders are Russia with a 24% stake, Kazakhstan with a 20.75% stake and Chevron with a 15% stake.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

HRW criticises Kazakhstan over Union closure

JAN. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The New York-based Human Rights Watch criticised the imminent closure of Kazakhstan’s independent workers’ union, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan, as a violation of the right to freedom of association. A court in Shymkent, south Kazakhstan, had ordered the Union’s closure because it had violated union registration rules. The Kazakh authorities are suspicious of trade unions. They blame them for stirring up an oil workers strike in 2011 that turned into a riot.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh Central Bank keeps rates steady

JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank held its key interest rate as 12% at its first monetary session of 2017 but hinted that cuts would come later in the year to boost economic activity. The challenge for the Kazakh Central Bank is to boost economic activity without undermining confidence in its tenge currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakhstan buys Russian choppers

JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will receive an order of four Mi-35M combat helicopters from Russia in 2018, Russian Helicopters said. Kazakhstan has been looking to modernise and improve its military. It has signed various deals with Russia to boost military relations. The Mi-35M is Russia’s most sophisticated combat helicopter and is designed to attack land-based vehicles.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh editor pleads guilty to extortion

JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bigeldy Gabdullin, a Kazakh newspaper editor, pleaded guilty to trying to extort payments from government officials by threatening to publish negative articles about them. He was arrested in November and his trial is due to begin on Jan. 17. In the early 2000s, Mr Gabdullin had been a critic of the government but since the mid-2000s he has edited the pro-government Central Asia Monitor newspaper.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh registration rules frustrate people

ALMATY, JAN. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh authorities imposed new migration rules which will force people to register with a local unit of the interior ministry every time they switch jobs or travel somewhere, even if it is just for a few days.

The interior ministry has said the new rules are needed to help fight terrorism but the hundreds of people queuing at centres across the country said that the new plans were just adding cost and wasting time.

Centres dealing with the flow of people trying to register under the new rules have had their opening times extended by an hour and are now also open on Sundays.

Saltanat, 25, a small business owner in Almaty said the authorities hadn’t communicated their plan properly.

“This is a very flawed law and I think that those who passed it don’t fully understand it themselves,” she said. “I have to work eight hours a day and I don’t know how am I going to register given huge lines in Public Service Centres.”

The Kazakh authorities want to clampdown on terrorism and some people welcomed the new rules.

“In my mind, authorities are attempting to solve two problems at once. Reduce the crime rate in big cities and control the unstoppable migration of people from rural areas to the cities like Almaty,” said Shaken, 49.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

House prices fall in Kazakhstan

JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The price of new housing in Kazakhstan, considered a key economic indicator, was 3.6% lower in December 2016 than 12 months earlier, media reported quoting the economy ministry. This is still slower than the fall in older houses which analysts said was down by up to 15% in 2016. Kazakhstan’s economy has been hit by a collapse in oil prices and the fall in the value of the tenge.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)