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The Regions This Week
June 1, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
Azerbaijan inaugurated the first phase of the Southern Gas Corridor at the Sangchal terminal. The corridor’s interconnected pipeline projects are designed to supply natural gas to Turkey and southern Europe. Southern Gas Corridor will
run to Turkey via Georgia and can help Europe diversify its gas supplies away from over-reliance on Russia.
Remittances sent to Armenia from Russia by individuals increased by 14.6% y/y in 2017, central bank governor Arthur Javadyan said. Remittances are highly important to the Armenian economy, and the region’s major economy Russia is a prime destination for Armenian migrant workers.
The owner of the world’s biggest refining complex,
India’s Reliance Industries, is planning to halt oil imports from Iran, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The move is an early sign that heavy new US sanctions to be introduced in the wake of Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal are forcing buyers to drop future oil purchases from Tehran.
An Almaty court ordered the shutting down of Kazakh news site Ratel.kz in a case criticised
by media watchdogs as part of an official harassment campaign against independent media outlets. The ban follows a series of developments which started in late March when a court issued an order to block Ratel.kz.
Georgia’s GDP is estimated to have grown by a real 6.5% y/y in April, statistics office Geostat said. This is an acceleration compared to the first quarter of the year; the first four months of the year saw average growth estimated at 5.5% y/y, with the April estimate dragging the average up.
Former prime minister of Kyrgyzstan Sapar Isakov was indicted and barred from leaving
the country on corruption charges relating to
a power station that hit the headlines when it malfunctioned and left inhabitants of the capital Bishkek exposed to the winter cold for days.
The CEO of Turquoise Hill, which operates Mongolia's flagship gold and copper mine Oyu Tolgoi, will retire. The decision on his departure took place amid an ongoing investigation into the mining agreement between the government and the company, which is a Canada-listed subsidiary of Rio Tinto.
State-owned Tajikistan Aluminium Company (Tal- co) plans to boost aluminium production to 168,000 tonnes in 2018, up from 103,000 tonnes in 2017.
Monthly consumer prices in Uzbekistan deflated 0.6% in May, following the 0.9% inflation rate seen in April, according to the latest data from the country’s central bank. Monthly inflation stood at 1.1% in March and February and at 2.7% in January.
A Chinese investment company is looking to invest $2bn in developing an oil refinery in Iran’s Mazandaran Province located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, Islamic Republic
News Agency (IRNA) cited an Iranian official as saying. The official did not disclose the name of the potential investor but reportedly added that the Chinese have a certain interest in making
the investment and face no competition from investors from other countries.
Kazakhstan’s president signed a law on liberalising business regulation, aimed at reducing state control of the economy by 30%. Since the country’s economy was hit by low oil and gas prices in 2015-2016, the government has been attempting to remove regulatory burdens on small businesses, which included simplifying the process of paying taxes.