Economy
Business and investment
Tajikistan’s trade deficit reached $6.31 billion in nine months as imports grew 40.8%
Imports of $8.48 billion ran 3.9 times above exports of $2.17 billion in January-September, by the Statistics Agency’s figures as Asia-Plus presented them on Tuesday, and the deficit widened from about $4.19 billion a year earlier. China took 30.5% of exports and supplied 28% of imports, with Russia, Kazakhstan and Switzerland next.
Turkistan’s new virology laboratory promises faster tests and publishes no turnaround time
Kazakhstan opened a virology laboratory in Turkistan on 10 September under a $58.2 million pandemic-preparedness project, $19.2 million of it a Pandemic Fund grant, for a region that used to send its samples elsewhere. Every speech promised faster diagnosis. No public document sets the time from sample to result, before or after: not the order on especially dangerous infections, not the laboratory standard of 2020, none of the releases.
Mongolia’s finance minister defends ₮2 trillion of Oyu Tolgoi’s dividend for power plants
Finance minister Z. Mendsaikhan told the Khural’s budget committee on Tuesday that ₮1 trillion of next year’s Oyu Tolgoi dividend goes to the savings fund under the National Wealth Fund law and ₮2 trillion to a stalled project to build thermal power plants in ten provinces. A deputy asked by what legal basis the ₮2 trillion had been put on the spending side.
Uzbekistan’s $12 billion US package: 54 documents, twelve names, one verb in dispute
The package presented at the Uzbekistan-United States Business and Investment Council in Samarkand on Monday 19 October names GE Aerospace, Wabtec, four American financial houses, three minerals firms and three others, with one sum for all. Its ministry says the 54 documents were signed, the presidency says prepared, and only AKFA Group’s $80 million plant in Kentucky came with a figure of its own.
Kazakhstan’s official rate falls to 452.12 tenge for Saturday and holds through Monday
The National Bank set the official rate at 452.12 tenge to the dollar for Saturday 17 October, 2.02 below Friday’s 454.14, and the same figure stands for Sunday and Monday in the bank’s daily series. The euro went to 508.95 and the yuan to 67.62, with the rouble unchanged at 5.41.
Tashkent will index heating tariffs to inflation from May 2028, with a 10% ceiling a year
Centralised heating tariffs in Uzbekistan are to be indexed every year from 1 May 2028 by the annual inflation rate but by no more than 10%, deputy economy and finance minister Khurshed Mustafayev said on 14 October, Spot reported on Thursday evening. The same mechanism has applied to household electricity and gas tariffs since the start of 2026, he said.
Yerevan declares ENA an overriding public interest and sets up a railway group with Russia
Armenia’s government recognised 100% of the shares of Electric Networks of Armenia, or ENA, owned by the Tashir group, as an overriding public interest at its sitting on 15 October, the status Armenian law requires before the state can take property, News.am reported. Tashir’s owner Samvel Karapetyan leads the opposition Strong Armenia alliance. Nikol Pashinyan the same day set up a working group with Russia on the railway concession.
The tenge falls to 454.14 as analysts polled by the National Bank cut inflation forecasts
The National Bank set the official rate at 454.14 tenge to the dollar for 16 October, up 3.52 from Thursday’s 450.62 and the third rise in a row. Its October survey of 14 forecasting organisations lowered the median inflation expectation for 2026 from 10% to 9.5% and raised the Brent assumption for the year to $88.4 a barrel.
Kazakhstan’s 2027 budget passes first reading with 19.9 trillion tenge of own revenue
Kazakhstan’s parliament approved the draft republican budget for 2027 to 2029 in first reading on 14 October by 128 votes with 8 abstentions, Kapital reported. The draft puts 2027 own revenues at 19.9 trillion tenge and spending at 30.2 trillion, with 5.5 trillion more in transfers, and the co-rapporteur said the VAT rise to 16% has yet to bring the revenue expected.
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan switch on a 380 km Caspian cable and sign a Middle Corridor pact
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Ilham Aliyev opened the Trans-Caspian fibre-optic line between Sumgayit and Aktau online on 15 October, a 380 km cable on the seabed with a capacity above 400 terabits a second, Report said. In their presence the two governments exchanged a signed agreement on the Middle Corridor and restated a $1 billion trade target, Akorda said.
Mongolia amends its Minerals Law and votes a 2 trillion tugrik deficit in the same sitting
The State Great Khural finally approved on 16 October Minerals Law amendments that, by the ministry’s summary, double the local share of royalties, bring the copper royalty into line with international benchmarks and strengthen the legal basis for a critical minerals policy. The sitting also adopted the 2026 budget revision, with spending of 33.9 trillion tugrik and a 2 trillion deficit, four days before the ruling party’s deadline.
The tenge’s official rate steps back to 450.62 for 15 October after two days of gains
The National Bank of Kazakhstan set the official rate at 450.62 tenge to the dollar for 15 October, 2.17 weaker than Wednesday’s 448.45, by its daily series. The two preceding days had taken the rate down from the 453.93 that held over the weekend and Monday.
Rahmon extends Tajikistan’s moratorium on business inspections to 1 January 2029
Emomali Rahmon told entrepreneurs and investors on 14 October that the moratorium on inspections of businesses runs two more years, to 1 January 2029, with tax inspections excepted, and that business registration, permits and licensing must move online by the end of 2027, Asia-Plus reported from his press service.
China Nerin’s half-year report prices its Togolok contract with Kumtor at $112.8 million
A Chinese contractor’s filing has put a number on the mine Kumtor is building beside its main pit: China Nerin Engineering Technology signed a $112.8 million engineering, procurement and construction contract with Kumtor Operating Company on 23 April for the Togolok gold plant, tailings facility and infrastructure, Economist.kg reported on 14 October from the company’s first-half report.
Tashkent drafts a 5,000-soum propane price from 1 November and a 3,000-soum subsidy
Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Economy and Finance has published a draft resolution that sets the retail price of liquefied gas for households at 5,000 soums a kilogram from 1 November, 2.5 times the current 2,000, and pays needy families back 3,000 soums a kilogram on up to 20 kilograms a month until 1 January 2030.
Four in five British seasonal farm visas go to Central Asians who buy the visa themselves
Britain granted 41,766 Seasonal Worker visas in the year to June 2026 and 79% went to Central Asians, with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan the countries the Home Office names. Its survey with Defra of 16,787 workers shows who paid: 90.1% said they bought their own visa, 63% spent £500 to £999 before arrival, and 26.8% of Uzbek respondents reported paying labour or migration ministry fees.
Kazakhstan’s official rate is 448.45 tenge to the dollar for 14 October after two falls
Kazakhstan’s official rate for 14 October is 448.45 tenge to the dollar, down 2.86 from 451.31 for 13 October, which was itself 2.62 below the 453.93 that held for Saturday 10 October and Monday 12 October. The euro is at 501.59.
ADB lends Baku $302 million for metro signalling inside a $2.6 billion expansion
The Asian Development Bank approved a $302.38 million loan on 13 October to replace Baku Metro’s signalling with communications-based train control and to digitalise its operations. The project costs $515.07 million, with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank adding $79.98 million and the government $132.71 million, and sits inside a state programme the bank puts at $2.6 billion.
Uzbekistan drafts a 30% heating rise from 1 November and a million soums for the poorest
Uzbekistan has published two drafts for public comment, a cabinet resolution on tariffs and a presidential decree on social support, that set the terms of its move to market energy prices. Heating and hot water rise about 30% from 1 November, with Tashkent’s heating tariff at 314 soums per square metre a day. Families in the social registry get a one-off 1 million soums in November.
Tokayev puts Belgian investment since 2005 at $15 billion as King Philippe arrives
Belgian investment in Kazakhstan has exceeded $15 billion since 2005, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at a joint briefing with King Philippe on Monday, the first day of a state visit by the king and Queen Mathilde. A business forum, a rectors’ forum and a round table on critical minerals follow on Tuesday, with dozens of agreements expected, by Tengrinews’s account of the president’s remarks.