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The Regions This Week
November 9, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 9
Eurasia
Economies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus will average annual growth of 4.2%
in the coming years, the IMF said. The rate is
less than half the rate of growth seen in the early 2000s. As such, the IMF believes the region needs to strengthen reform efforts to reduce govern- ments’ roles within economies further rather than seeing growth from growing oil prices as
an excuse to relax.
Poland’s biggest retailer LLP launched in Ka- zakhstan, opening a Reserved store in the coun- try’s commercial capital Almaty. The move marks the 23rd foreign market the company has entered.
Mongolia is probing the suspected funnelling of $1mn by officials to friends and family. The anti- corruption authority is investigating allegations that senior government officials and parliamen- tarians siphoned off over $1mn in government money.
Protesters in Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakshan region demanded the removal of new police checkpoints. Around 100 people gathered in Khorugh, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, which has reportedly been undergoing a government crackdown within the past two months.
The collapse of the rial drove a boom in shoppers arriving in Iran from the Caucasus and Turkey. International arrivals in Iran by land, sea and air routes rose 51% y/y in the first six months of the current Persian calendar year (March 21 to September 22) as bargain hunters flooded into the country.
The Armenian capital is taking a tough line on illegal construction, and will no longer allow the legalisation of illegal developments after they are built. Yerevan’s chief architect delivered a strong
message at a press conference, stressing that no more historic buildings will be destroyed on his watch.
The big-spending wife of a jailed Azerbaijani banker was detained in London. Zamira Hajiyeva, married to the former boss of Azerbaijan's biggest bank, is known in the UK press as the woman who spent more than $21m in luxury London depart- ment store Harrods over a decade.
Consumer prices in Georgia increased by 2.3% y/y in October, easing from the 2.7% y/y rise seen in September, the national statistics office reported. Headline inflation has thus dropped to its lowest level in nearly two years, with prices hovering at a steady level throughout this year.
The ADB will provide $78mn to complete the rehabilitation of a road that connects two major transport corridors that link landlocked Kyr- gyzstan to international markets. Weak domestic and regional connectivity stands as a hindrance to the Central Asian nation’s economic growth.
Japan’s Ometa will establish a “medical infor- mation centre” in the Uzbek capital. Uzbekistan’s healthcare system is not up to par following a quarter of a century of isolationism experienced before the death of the first Uzbek president, Is- lam Karimov, in 2016.
A Chinese state firm ruled out selling passenger planes to Iran to help the Islamic Republic revive fleet renewal plans, while a Russian executive
has suggested Moscow would be wary of putting its own programs at risk of US retaliation, Reu- ters reported. With the US having now imposed its toughest ever sanctions regime on Tehran, the Iranians will have a tough time continuing with modernisation plans for their air fleets.