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The Regions This Week
January 25, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
Uzbekistan and Germany signed agreements
worth more than €8bn prior to and during Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s official visit to Ger- many which concluded on January 22, AKIpress news agency reported. A German-Uzbek business forum held in Berlin on January 14, ahead of Mir- ziyoyev’s visit, saw the two sides sign “protocols of intent” and investment contracts worth €4bn.
Turkmen oil exports via Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiisk will resume in February, Reuters reported citing four market sources. The transit of Turkmen crude oil via Russia was halted in 2016 — the Central Asian nation has been exporting all its oil via Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea port of Baku instead.
Kazakh retail sales moved up by 6.5% y/y in 2018, reaching KZT10.07 trillion (€23.4bn), ac- cording to latest data published by Kazakhstan's State Statistics Committee. The gain reflects the ongoing household consumption recovery driven by refreshed economic growth, which registered at 4.1% in 2018.
Iran discovered a new oil field containing re- serves of “very light and sweet” crude near the southwestern city of Abadan. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh previously pointed to how Iran can look forward to tapping as-yet-undiscovered oil and gas fields, partly because the country halted much of its hydrocarbon exploration activi- ties following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Close relatives of Tajik President Emomali Rah- mon may acquire Tajik Air “for a pittance”, Eurasi- anet reported, citing anonymous sources. Tajik Air has been struggling for over a decade, having ac- crued domestic debts worth $14mn for fuel deliver- ies, on-board catering as well as airport and air navigation services. The carrier is also drowning in foreign debt though figures have not been disclosed.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku for a sanctioned
rally in which they called for the release of a jailed anticorruption blogger and other people they see as political prisoners. The police gave a crowd estimate of just 2,800 people for the rally, but op- position organisers claimed the real figure was around 20,000.
Leading Chinese carmaker Guangzhou Automo- bile Group will open an office in Georgia by the end of 2019, the Georgian government announced. After opening the office, the company will study the country's environment further prior to making decisions on investing and building plants.
The Kyrgyz authorities detained and fined 21 activ- ists who took part in a 500-strong demonstra- tion in Kyrgyzstan against China’s “re-education camps”, RFE/RL reported, citing Kyrgyz Interior Ministry spokesman Bakyt Seitov. The activists were fined KGS3,000 (€37.76) each.
Mongolian consumer price inflation was re- corded at 8.1% y/y at the end of 2018, according to latest national statistics office data. In monthly terms, inflation grew slightly by 0.6% in Decem- ber. The headline figure continued the economic recovery-driven inflation trend set in 2017.
The EU welcomed a recent thaw in relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the decades-old conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway territory, Euractiv reported. Armenia is technically at war with Azerbaijan over the territory, which is de facto under the control of Yerevan but is internationally recognised as still Azerbaijani.
Kazakh analytical firm Halyk Finance predicts that Kazakh banks will continue experiencing deterioration in 2019, LS news agency reported. According to Halyk Finance, the ongoing deterio- ration will be driven by the inefficient business models of the smaller banks, which will face increased competition for high-quality borrowers and depositors.