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Uzbekistan's central bank holds 90% of its reserves in gold and now plans to take its bond book beyond US Treasury bills
Abror Mirzo Olimov, deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, told the first International Forum on Public Asset Management in Tashkent on Friday that the bank held about 439 tonnes of gold worth about $65 billion at the start of September, about 90% of international reserves of more than $72 billion, and that the bank plans to take its fixed-income portfolio of $1.766 billion, about 2.4% of reserves, beyond US Treasury bills into sovereign, subnational and other fixed-income instruments, Gazeta.uz and Spot reported.
The Black Sea drone war reaches the Danube: a Turkish-owned freighter's captain is killed in the Bystre canal as Moscow claims cargo ships hit on 5 of the last 6 days
The Mariam M, a Tanzanian-flagged general cargo ship in the fleet of UBSM Shipping of Mersin, was hit by a drone in the Bystre canal of the Danube delta on Thursday morning on its way to load wheat at Reni. Ukraine's infrastructure ministry says the captain was killed and 3 crew wounded; Turkish maritime outlets put the dead at 2 and the wounded at 13. Russia's defence ministry, which names no ships, has claimed strikes on cargo vessels in Odesa, Chornomorsk and at sea on the Izmail approach on 5 of the last 6 days, on CAW's count of its statements.
Pashinyan's government drafts the Trump route company's charter the day after the court's ruling; Iran's ambassador asks Yerevan for a standing channel on the route
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired a meeting on Thursday on the legal and contractual package of the TRIPP Development Company, its charter and the draft shareholder agreement, his office said, and discussions in that format will continue. The same evening Iran's ambassador, Khalil Shirgholami, said in remarks Armenia Today and NEWS.am reported that a joint institutionalised mechanism with Armenia's government would be the best way to address Tehran's concern about an American presence on the Armenia-Iran border.
Oyu Tolgoi's revenue runs $1.9 billion ahead of plan in 8 months; the copper dividend is still dated 2027
Oyu Tolgoi LLC earned $5.5 billion in January to August against a plan of $3.6 billion, ikon.mn reported on Thursday from the company's quarterly report, with copper output at 276,000 tonnes against 251,700 planned and gold at 339,000 ounces against 286,000. Taxes, fees and other payments to the state stood at ₮834 billion as of the second quarter, about $232 million at the central bank's rate posted for Thursday.
Uzbekistan's asset agency puts $145 million of privatisation money in the budget and an $851 million Mobiuz deal on a year-end clock
The deputy director of the State Assets Management Agency, Alisher Miraliev, told Spot at the Cbonds capital-market conference on Thursday that the $65 million paid for Humo and the $80 million paid for SamAuto have reached the budget in full, that the consortium which won Mobiuz is negotiating a contract to close by the end of 2026, and that Asakabank may be the first state bank sold, though not this year.
Kyrgyzstan widens its fuel export ban to petroleum gases; the Chinese-owned Junda refinery gets a 4,800-tonne exception
The cabinet has added customs headings 2711 and 2901 to the temporary ban on exports of oil and petroleum products it imposed in July, 24.kg reported on Friday, so that petroleum gases, LPG among them, and acyclic hydrocarbons join the petrol and diesel that may not leave. Heating oil made by China Petrol Company Junda LLC may leave, up to 4,800 tonnes.
The WMO writes the region's water year down: reservoirs below normal from Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan, the Aral basin's rivers in decline, glaciers with one of their 3 worst years on record
The World Meteorological Organization's State of Global Water Resources 2025, published on Thursday, records inflows to the reservoirs of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan below or well below the 1991 to 2020 normal, a decline in flow across the Aral Sea basin, and the glacier balance of Central Asia in the year to September 2025 among the 3 most negative on record. Globally, 2021 to 2025 was one of the driest runs for river flow since observations began in 1991. Every water instrument the region has put on paper this month is priced to a river the report says is running short.
Washington's new tariff law counts Russian gas by volume, and Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are closing in on its top five
The House cleared the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act for the President on Wednesday with a 262 to 159 vote. It lets him put duties of up to 100% on all goods from the 5 largest buyers of Russian crude or gas. By the volumes on the record, Astana and Tashkent are fourth and fifth on the gas list, with about 1 billion cubic metres or less between them and the buyers behind.
Nurek’s second phase would put $220 million of AIIB debt on Dushanbe’s books as the World Bank’s grants give way to credits
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s project list carries a proposed $220 million sovereign loan for the second phase of the Nurek plant’s rehabilitation, with a concept review dated 3 July and the World Bank and the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development as co-financiers, Asia-Plus reported on Wednesday. The World Bank has paid for the second phase so far with grants, $50 million in 2020 and $65 million in 2021, and its new country framework turned grants into credits on 1 July.
Pashinyan calls the “Western Azerbaijan” narrative a threat to the peace and puts Kyarki inside 29,743 square kilometres; Shoigu declares Moscow’s crisis with Baku over
At a security conference in Yerevan on Thursday the Armenian prime minister named the “Western Azerbaijan” narrative a serious challenge and a threat to Armenia’s security, and drew the state’s border by the Soviet republic’s 29,743 square kilometres, with the Azerbaijani enclaves outside it and Artsvashen inside. In Moscow the same day Russia’s Security Council secretary said the crisis with Baku had been overcome by joint effort and that Russia “is not ready and will not finance” Armenia’s European integration.
A Turkish shipowner takes the Black Sea drone war to the ICC over a bosun killed off Novorossiysk; Russia claims 3 more freighters hit in Chornomorsk
The owner of the Turkish-flagged Reyhan Sari, 12 of its crew and the family of Savas Cakar, the 54-year-old bosun killed when a drone hit the ship off Novorossiysk on 22 July, have lodged a complaint at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, DenizHaber reported on Thursday morning. Twenty-two minutes later Russia’s defence ministry said its drones had struck 3 dry-cargo ships and a ferry in the port of Chornomorsk.
Kazakhstan’s budget lost 1.7 trillion tenge to the oil it did not pump, and 2027 is written at 480 tenge and $70
The first vice-minister of national economy, Azamat Amrin, put a figure on the year’s lost barrels as the 2027 to 2029 draft went to the Kurultai: 1.7 trillion tenge less for the budget, about 200 billion of it in export duty on the barrels that did not leave, on a production plan cut from 105 million tonnes to 96. The new draft assumes 480 tenge to the dollar against the 540 in the current law, and a $70 barrel against $60.
Mongolia’s parliament fails to make a quorum for a new justice minister and its rewritten fiscal rule; the 2027 draft prints a 2% deficit
Fifty-two of 126 members registered for Thursday’s plenary, 41.3%, and the Speaker moved the sitting to Monday. The Democratic Party sent 1 of its 42 members; the governing party sent 44 of its 68. On the agenda were the replacement of the justice minister sacked on Wednesday and the amendment that takes 2 indicators out of the fiscal rule.
Kyrgyzstan raises its 2027 quota for foreign workers to 120,000, up from 100,000 this year and 42,000 in 2025
The cabinet's new order does not say which countries or sectors get the places. China, India, Turkey and Pakistan lead the requests, 24.kg reported; Kaktus.media says the workers go mainly to construction and sewing. The foreign ministry has distributed the quota since 2025.
Ashgabat lists 16 more Korean documents, from the Turkmenbashi refinery to the Balkan shipyard; its own summit readout is stamped 23:55
The government press service's list pairs the refinery complex with YUHANTECH, the auto-transport ministry with Hyundai Corporation, the communications ministry with LS Cable & System and the water committee with Daewoo E&C. None carries a sum. The state site's post on the Seoul summit names six documents and the four other presidents.
A Chinese bidder's 100 MW solar plant opens at Pirsaat; Baku's agencies call it the first project awarded by auction
Universal International Holdings Limited won the site in 2024. The plant in Baku's Garadagh district is to produce about 200 million kilowatt-hours a year and save 45 million cubic metres of gas. Azeri Light printed at $128.03 the same morning.
A Tbilisi court gives Georgia's former security chief 13 years for bribes as parliament seats the fourth head of his old service
Grigol Liluashvili, who ran the State Security Service from October 2019 to April 2025, was convicted of taking bribes in an especially large amount as a group on all four episodes of the indictment, under article 338 of the Criminal Code, which carries 11 to 15 years. He denies the charges.
Uzbekistan's central bank holds at 14% against 6.2% inflation, a real rate wider than Astana's or Yerevan's
The board kept the main rate on Wednesday and named the risks it does not control: world prices, the liberalisation of regulated prices and expectations that fall more slowly than inflation. Its target is 5% by the end of 2027, the year the pension draft's changes begin.
Pashinyan tells parliament the Trump route runs from Azerbaijan's border to Azerbaijan's border, and Armenia decides at the gates
On the day the Constitutional Court cleared the TRIPP agreement, the prime minister spent the government hour answering Baku's description of the route and Moscow's description of the price of Europe. He conceded the geography, kept the jurisdiction and moved the base question to Putin.
The tenge closes at 444.88 to the dollar, its strongest since May 2024, while the budget law is written at 540
The dollar's weighted average at the close of day trading on KASE was 444.88 tenge on Wednesday, down 2.8, its lowest since May 2024, Tengrinews reported at 15:44. For the day the National Bank's official rate is 447.88. The 2026 budget law assumes 540 tenge to the dollar and $60 oil.