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The Regions This Week
December 15, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eurasia
The five littoral states that share the shore of the Caspian Sea have after decades of talks agreed to settle their differences and delineate the inland sea’s maritime borders. Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are mindful
of ascertaining satisfactory boundaries given the rich oil and gas reserves under the sea.
The US’s envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, showed re- porters remnants of a ballistic missile that came close to hitting Riyadh's airport and accused Iran of providing Yemen's rebel Houthi movement with such missiles to attack Saudi Arabia. A UN report said the evidence of origins was inconclusive. Iran called the US presentation fabricated.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani proposed to parliament conservative state annual budget- ing of around 3,681 trillion rials ($103.9bn at the official exchange rate) for non-state enterprise expenditures. That’s 6% up y/y against current inflation of near 10%. Budget planning must take into account the possible unravelling of the nu- clear deal at the hands of Donald Trump.
Speaker of Iran’s parliament Ali Larijani made it clear to visiting British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson that the UK is not doing enough to support the nu- clear deal compared to other European states. Even banking obstacles obstructing the Iranian embassy in London had not been removed, he said.
An Iranian government delegation attended the 11th World Trade Organisation Summit as Iran was welcomed as an official observer country. But Iran is not currently actively pushing to join the WTO.
The Development Bank of Kazakhstan issued the first ever tenge-denominated eurobond, raising the equivalent of $300mn from a three year note. Yield guidance was 9.625%-9.875% before pricing tightened to 9.625%.
More than 40% of Georgian women are economi- cally inactive, a UNDP and women's rights NGO
Union Sapari study found. Furthermore, employed women on average earned 35% less than men. Cultural reasons are the main cause of women's poor participation in Georgia’s job market. But the UNDP noted that Georgian "women are often more qualified than men".
Kyrgyzstan ordered the deportation of Central Asia correspondent for Agence-France Presse Chris Rickleton. Rickleton has for eight years lived in Bishkek with his Kyrgyz wife and daughter. The Kyrgyz foreign ministry has repeatedly denied him accreditation without any explanation since he joined AFP in 2015. Kyrgyzstan has tight foreign media rules. It bans activities of media outlets financially supported by foreign countries.
Mongolia’s Supreme Court ruled against the government’s attempt to nationalise a 49% stake in Erdenet copper mine. Lawmakers voted to seize Mongolian Copper Corporation’s (MCC’s) holding in the large copper mine saying the $400mn-sale of it by Russia’s Rostec to MCC was unconstitutional due to a lack of parliamentary approval. The Supreme Court ruling restores the stake to MCC.
Turkmenistan set a new limit on money trans- fers from local bank cards to Visa cards which can be cashed abroad. It halved the monthly limit to $500. The country is battling an economic crisis and is striving to keep hard currency circulating domestically.
Uzbekistan’s farmers fulfilled their contractual obligations to the state with this year’s cotton harvest, collecting over 2.93mn tonnes of cotton. The country announced last year that it intended to cut its annual cotton harvest to 3mn tonnes of raw cotton by 2020, down from 3.35mn tonnes in 2015. The move is required by factors including declining global demand for cotton fibre and fall- ing world cotton prices.