Page 7 - bne_newspaper_April_07_2017

The Regions This Week
April 7, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eurasia
Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who could invigorate and unify conservatives, declared he will run in Iran’s May 19 presidential election. He might pose a real threat to moderate President Hassan Rouhani’s bid for re-election. Raisi is notorious for having been a member of the so- called Islamic Revolution death committee that
in the 1980s had thousands of Iranians executed. Hamid Baghaei, another hardliner and protégé of ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is also to challenge Rouhani.
US Senator John McCain defended the deal worth up to $5bn signed by Iran’s Aseman Airlines and Boeing for 737 MAX aircraft as perfectly legal. Long an opponent of the 2015 nuclear agreement that delivered Iran’s post- sanctions era, McCain said: “They’ve got the money and it’s not a weapons system, so it doesn’t require any involvement from Congress.” The deal is a test case for Donald Trump, a vociferous opponent of the Iranian regime and nuclear deal.
Kazakhstan’s justice ministry told Almaty city hall it can proceed with a US court demand for compensation from former top official Viktor Khrapunov. He is accused of looting state cash and laundering it with companies including some linked to the US president’s Trump Soho luxury hotel-condominium in Manhattan. Certain investments have left Khrapunov open to anti- corruption legislation in California.
France’s central bank removed final banking restrictions on Iran’s Bank Saderat, providing it with a full licence to offer services to customers in Europe. One of Iran's oldest financial institutions, the bank is roughly estimated to have revenue of over $40bn.
Sovereign wealth fund Iran Foreign Investment Company (IFIC) wants to co-invest in foreign high-tech healthcare including pharmaceutical and cancer research projects.
IFIC is also looking at opportunities in the automotive industry centred on navigation, accident reduction and cutting air pollution.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is forecasting an acceleration of Kazakh economic growth to 2.4% in 2017, up from 1% in 2016. Growth will reflect continued fiscal spending to stimulate consumption and investment, and higher earnings from oil exports, ADB said. Annual inflation in 2017 is projected by the bank at 8%.
Kazakh consumer price inflation in Kazakhstan slowed to 7.7% y/y in March against the 15.7%
y/y seen in March 2016. In line with the expected easing, the central bank cut its key interest rate by one percentage point to 11% at its last meeting, in February. It has cut its rate by a cumulative 600 basis points since it started its easing cycle in May 2016.
The Armenian and Kyrgyzstani constitutional referenda of 2015-2016 entrenched the ruling elites’ power and the oligarchic status quo, democracy watchdog Freedom House said. Its “Nations in Transit 2017” report ranked Georgia as a flawed democracy (transitional government/ hybrid regime) and classified Armenia as a semi- consolidated authoritarian regime. Kyrgyzstan and all the other countries in the region were ranked as consolidated authoritarian regimes.
Azerbaijan is creating a national commission on transparency in extractive industries having dropped out of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) – a 50-member- country voluntary organisation seeking to ensure the transparent and fair management of revenues from mineral and energy exploration. Baku rejected EITI after Azerbaijan was suspended by it for oppressing civil society.
Russia and South Ossetia signed a military agreement formalising the integration of the latter’s military forces into the Russian army. South Ossetian President Leonid Tibilov has long lobbied Moscow for an outright annexation of the Georgian region to Russia.