Page 7 - bne_newspaper_August_17_2018

The Regions This Week
August 17, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eurasia
An appeals court in England on August 13 al- lowed Moldovan businessman, Anatolie Stati, to drop a legal case pursued against Kazakhstan, causing both sides to claim a tactical victory. The action was part of a long running dispute over oil deals.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has con- demned the US sanctions campaign against Iran, saying his country treats the Islamic Republic “like a brother”, the local press reported. Baku is attempting to boost flows of tourists coming from its neighbour across the Caspian Sea.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has vowed to “speed up reform” in the South Cau- casus nation, after spending exactly 100 days in office. Pashinian told his cabinet that "we are en- tering a new stage and the main meaning of this stage is to speed up the reform".
Trade is up between Kazakhstan and its part- ners Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia
– all members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) – expanding by 6.3% y/y to $8.87bn in Janu- ary-July according to latest data published by the State Statistics Committee. Exports rose by 11.3% y/y to $2.84mn, while imports increased by 4.1% y/y to $6.03bn.
Kazakh retail sales were up by 5.6% y/y in January-July, reaching KZT4.4tn (€1.07bn), according to the State Statistics Committee. The gain reflects an ongoing household consumption recovery driven by refreshed economic growth, which stood at 4% in 2017, up from the 1% recorded in 2016. Kazakh GDP grew 4% y/y in January-July of this year, the official website
of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan stated on August 14.
Kazakhstan’s national currency hit KZT363.97 against the dollar on August 14, falling to a new 30-month low. The all-time weakest tenge to the
dollar rate of KZT382 occurred in early 2016. The plunge was due to the tenge’s strong links to the Russian ruble, which experienced a two-day drop last week on the back of the Turkish crisis and US sanctions.
State-run Uzbekinvest’s insurance premiums tripled in annual terms to UZS112bn (€12.5mn) in the first half of 2018, the local press reported. Uzbekistan's insurance sector has likely been stimulated by ongoing reforms introduced
by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Total payments by Uzbekinvest were made to the tune of UZS11.5bn, up by 32% from the previous year.
Armenia intends to issue bonds that will tap
its vast diaspora, estimated at 7-10mn people worldwide. The diaspora far outnumbers the impoverished post-Soviet nation’s population of 2.9mn and the government hopes to issue a strat- egy by the of this year.
Kazakhstan’s oil output grew by 6.1% y/y to 59.1mn tonnes in the first seven months of 2018, according to the State Statistics Committee. The increase was mostly driven by an ongoing accel- eration in the output of the giant Kashagan field, which boosted its output 77.1% to 6.2mn tonnes in the first half of the year.
One of the largest independent oil traders, Vitol, is hoping to gain access to exports of petro- chemicals and light oil from Kazakhstan as the country's output of these products is set to rise thanks to the completion of modernisation works at its three refineries, trading sources told on Reuters on August 15.
The number of Kazakh property deals grew by 3.6% m/m to 22,980 in July, according to the sta- tistical office. In the January-July period, property deals jumped by 8.2% y/y to 142,084, due to Ka- zakh GDP growth of 4% in 2017, improving signifi- cantly from the 1% growth seen in 2016.