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The Regions This Week
July 19, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eurasia
Saudi Aramco is interested in teaming up with Russia’s Lukoil private oil major on two natural gas projects in Uzbekistan, RIA Novosti reported, citing documents signed by a joint governmental commission.
Kazakhstan will invest $3.3bn by 2023 to
boost the development of its third largest city Shymkent and upgrade its infrastructure, Astana Times reported, citing Kazakh Minister of National Economy Ruslan Dalenov. Shymkent’s population has grown significantly in the last decade with the population exceeding 1mn in 2018.
Iran is yet to show any “significant noncompliance” with the 2015 nuclear deal and the remaining signatories to the accord have “for the time being” not indicated any intention to trigger the accord’s dispute mechanism, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.
Armenian internet and telecom services provider Ucom completed the placement of bonds denominated in Armenian-drams with an annual coupon yield of 11% and USD bonds with an annual coupon yield of 7.5%. Over 200 individuals and organisations, including pension and investment funds, banking, investment
and high-tech organisations, were among the purchasers of Ucom bonds, the company said.
Kazakh-Kyrgyz mutual trade rose by 13% y/y to $850mn and is set to rise to $1bn by 2020, the Times of Central Asia reported, citing plans voiced during Kazakh Prime Minister Askar Mamin’s
visit to Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan accounts for 4% of Kazakhstan’s total trade turnover, while trade with Kazakhstan makes up 11% of Kyrgyzstan’s total trade. Both nations are heavily reliant on trade with Russia and China.
Uzbekistan will start investing in other nations’ sovereign bonds and reduce gold in its foreign
currency reserves, Bloomberg reported, citing chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, Mamariso Nurmuratov. Uzbek finance minister Jamshid Kuchkarov previously told Reuters that Tashkent planned to start buying US Treasuries in order to reduce gold in its stocks.
Representatives of Russia and Georgia met
for the first time since mass anti-Russian protests broke out in the Georgian capital Tbilisi last month, leading to an attempt to storm the parliament in which 240 people were hurt as police beat back protesters. Both the Russian and Georgian delegations confirmed there had been no major breakthrough in their initial discussion.
Kazakhstan’s central bank kept its policy rate unchanged at 9%. The central bank warned it may hike the rate later this year if it sees greater risks to its inflation target. The regulator identified increased domestic spending and expectations
of a global economic slowdown as among the key risks to its targeted inflation rate.
Turnover of Azerbaijan’s Baku Stock Exchange (BfB) increased to just under AZN1.6bn (€835mn) in June, after remaining flat at around AZN1.3bn for the three preceding months, data posted by the exchange showed. As usual, the largest share of turnover was in debt instruments at AZN1.0bn.
Iran reportedly remains ready to invest in replacing a South Indian refinery with a
larger facility. Ali Chegeni, ambassador of Iran
to India, was cited by Reuters as saying “we
have announced our readiness” to make an investment contribution to the Chennai Petroleum Corporation project to invest up to INR356.98bn ($5.1bn) to replace the 20,000 bpd Nagapattinam refinery in Southern Tamil Nadu state with
a 180,000 bpd plant.