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The Regions This Week
March 17, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
Growth in the CIS and Ukraine will average 1.7%
this year, the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) said. It is set to be the first positive aggregate outturn since 2014, but is still extremely subdued in the historical context as still-low oil prices hold back economic activity across the CIS region.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have recently resorted to raising diplomatic pressure to try to restart negotiations on the disputed Nagorno-Kara- bakh region. The presidents of the two countries have not met to negotiate the terms of a solution that would end the protracted territorial conflict since June 2016. The pressure comes amidst an increase in violence at the border between Na- gorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, which has left at least six casualties in the last two months.
The Azerbaijani economy will be on a slow path to recovery in 2017-2018, when its GDP will expand by 0.2% and 1.7% respectively, said Paul Gamble, senior director at Fitch Ratings. Oil and gas-dependent Baku has been grappling with
an economic recession – its GDP contracted by 3.8% y/y in 2016 – due to low commodity prices, monetary instability in the country, lower-than- anticipated public spending on infrastructure and a depressed business environment. However, the economy rebounded to 0.4% y/y growth in Jan- uary-February, national statistics agency Azstat noted in a report on March 15.
Kazakhstan’s ninth largest lender, Eurasian Bank, intends to enter the markets of Azerbai- jan, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the bank’s CEO Pavel Loginov told Forbes Kazakhstan in an interview. “We already are in [the] markets of Kazakhstan and Russia and want to become a transaction hub in all the Eurasian area, as well as enter the markets of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, maybe Azerbaijan and Georgia,” Loginov said add- ing that international expansion is a part of the bank’s current strategy.
The Swedish branch of Canadian aerospace mul- tinational Bombardier is suspected of bribing its way into a $350mn contract with the government of Azerbaijan. According to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Swe- den-based Bombardier Transportation AB used an UK-based shell company, Multiserv Overseas, to pay bribes to unnamed Azerbaijani officials. The intermediary company appears to have made $85.8mn in profit from the $350mn deal signed in 2013, whereby Bombardier was to supply Azerbai- jan with interlocking systems for railway switches.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order to have the military of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia integrated into the Russian military, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The order came the day after the Russian government published a draft agreement that would have enabled South Ossetian soldiers to serve as contract soldiers in the Russian military.
Iran’s top cargo shipping company, Islamic Re- public of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), has been in discussions with London Stock Exchange (LSE) to explore the possibility of listing the 126-ship company in the City, according to Reuters.
Kazakhstan’s oil production in February sur- passed its agreed limit under an Opec-led deal for 11 non-Opec countries, official data from the Kazakh energy ministry showed. The deal, aimed at cutting output and supporting prices, required Kazakhstan to cut output by 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) from its November level of 1.7mn bpd. In- stead, Kazakhstan’s February production level rose to 1.718mn or 38,000 bpd above its agreed limit.
Kyrgyzstan’s economic growth reached 5.4% y/y in the first two months of 2017, against the 9.5% y/y economic decline recorded in the same period of 2016, according to the latest data released by the National Statistical Committee.