Page 11 - bne_newspaper_April_20_2018

The Regions This Week
April 20, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
Eurasia
Kazakhstan said it might start looking for new markets for its alumina exports due to fears that the US sanctions applied to Russian aluminium giant Rusal could harm business. Partly Kazakh state-owned Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) produces 1.5mn tonnes/yr of alumina, selling two- thirds to Rusal.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stopped using the Telegram Messenger messaging
app and plugged three domestic alternatives in advance of a ban on all government bodies using foreign messaging apps. Officials claim such apps can be a national security threat. Critics say one of the homegrown domestic alternatives, Soroush, was developed by Iranian intelligence operatives.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev ordered an end to the practice of faking progress in cities and towns by sweeping up streets and repainting fences and old buildings ahead of presidential visits.
Iran replaced the dollar with the euro as its official reporting currency for foreign currency sums. The move came on the back of the Iranian rial nosediving to an all-time low-point as concern spread over the country’s economic future if
US President Donald Trump pulls the US out of the multilateral nuclear deal. Top officials claim Washington and its Middle East allies are trying to collapse Iran’s currency.
Azerbaijan reached a deal with Belarus to buy Polonez multiple launch rockets. Observers saw it as a response to Armenia's purchase of Russian Iskander missiles in 2016. Armenia and Azerbaijan remain locked in a territorial conflict over breakaway region Nagorno-Karabakh.
Kyrgyz authorities in Jalal-Abad region arrested 15 people over a protest at a gold- mining site that led to fires at buildings owned by Kyrgyz-Chinese JV Makmal GL Developing. The protesters are angry over environmental damage.
The Turkmen government banned the import of new bikinis and swimsuits for both men and women. A customs administration source reportedly said the ban concerned "the moral norms of the Turkmen people" and alluded to officials not wanting Turkmen women to wear revealing swimsuits.
Finland’s Hesburger became the first Western burger chain to set up in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It opened a Tehran outlet.
The US is reviewing Kazakhstan’s eligibility for US trade preferences over concerns the country is failing to uphold worker’s rights. After labour strikes in the oil town of Zhanaozen, which in 2011 ended in clashes that left at least a dozen people dead, the government pledged to improve labour relations and “modernise trade union institutions”. Human Rights Watch claims that officials instead cracked down on the unions.
BGF Retail, operator of largest South Korean convenience store chain CU, signed a franchise deal with Mongolian firm Central Express for the provision of CU outlets in Mongolia.
Anglo Asian Mining, Azerbaijan's sole operational gold mining company, reported a 26% y/y increase in gold equivalent ounces to 18,307 GEOs in Q1.
Remittances sent home by Tajik migrants working in Russia exceeded $2.5bn in 2017, compared to 2016’s $1.9bn. Such funds account for over 40% of GDP in Tajikistan.
Iran’s real GDP growth is forecast to edge down to 4.0% in both 2018 and 2019 from 4.3% in
2017, according to the latest edition of the World Economic Outlook issued by the IMF. Iranian unemployment is set to remain almost unchanged over the three years at slightly short of 12% and Iran’s CPI is likely to move up from 9.9% last year to 12.1% this year, before falling to 11.5% in 2019.