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The Regions This Week
April 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 10
Eurasia
As expected President Ilham Aliyev won a landslide victory in the snap presidential election in Azerbaijan. His fourth term will run until 2025 having been extended following the 2016 referendum.
Teheran halted the spiralling descent in the Iranian rial’s value by making open market trading unlawful and setting a unified official foreign exchange rate of IRR42,000 to the dollar. Anxieties over Iran’s economic future in the face of unrelenting hostility from Donald Trump were a major factor in driving the rial’s open market value to more than IRR60,000. A year ago, the rate was IRR37,600.
The Asian Development Bank’s Asian Development Outlook anticipates a general slowdown across Central Asia, with the exceptions of Uzbekistan, where it expects growth to rise, and Turkmenistan, where it forecasts a flat year on year growth level.
Bishkek is to privatise 51% of Air Kyrgyzstan. If the buyer is foreign, their stake must not exceed 49%, with 2% to be sold to other private investors.
Drought-stricken Iran banned the cultivation of rice in all provinces apart from those on the Caspian Sea coast. Farmers in Isfahan province have been mounting protests to demand the government turn water supplies back on as much of the water of their region has been redirected to surrounding arid regions.
Hong Kong-listed Citic Resources is reportedly negotiating to sell a significant minority
stake to Kazakhstan. An unnamed Kazakh government entity is said to be planning to inject energy assets into Citic Resources in return for a stake in the company. The entity may be Karazhanbasmunai, which operates Karazhanbas oilfield, is 50%-owned by Citic Resources.
Armenia swore in new President Armen Sarkissian, a former diplomat who has mostly lived in the UK for the past two decades. He takes over from Serzh Sargsyan but will largely serve a ceremonial role as Armenia is becoming a parliamentary republic. Sargsyan is expected to take on the newly powerful prime minister position.
Freedom House’s Nations in Transit 2018 report named Turkmenistan as its worst performer and Uzbekistan as its best improver. Uzbekistan was a “bright spot” given “the modest thaw that began with the death of President Islam Karimov in August 2016, making small but noticeable improvements in the atmosphere for civil society and the media”.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Washington may not be far from imposing “very strong” sanctions on Iran. He talked of “primary and secondary sanctions” to be introduced against Tehran and entities that do business with the Iranians, respectively. His remarks came with US President Donald Trump’s May 12 deadline for a nuclear deal renegotiation closing in.
Georgia wants a free trade agreement with
the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Georgian Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili told his Emirati counterpart, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansuri, during a bilateral visit.
Uzbekistan resumed exports of natural gas to Tajikistan for the first time since 2012. Uzbekistan is expected to supply around 126mn cubic metres of gas worth $15.1mn to its neighbour this year.
The Kazakh tenge weakened by 4.7% against the dollar in one day (April 10) in an unmistakeable reaction to the US sanctions assault on top oligarchs in Russia. The currency of Kazakhstan, a country with imperative trade and investment links to Russia, sank to as low as KZT334.