Economy
Business and investment
The World Bank lifts Kyrgyzstan to 9.6% and Georgia to 7% as the region slows to 2.2%
Growth in Europe and Central Asia is likely to slow to 2.2% in 2026 from 2.6% in 2025, the World Bank said in its Economic Update released in Washington on 6 October, with Central Asia the fastest subregion at 5.8%, Kyrgyzstan at 9.6% and Uzbekistan at 7.9%. Georgia’s forecast rises to 7% from the 5% of April, by Georgian press accounts of the same update.
The EAEU’s economic partnership with the UAE takes effect with duties cut on 85% of lines
The agreement on economic partnership between the Eurasian Economic Union, its member states and the United Arab Emirates entered into force on 6 October, Kazakhstan’s trade and integration ministry said as Kazinform carried it at 17:06. It abolishes or lowers import duties on more than 85% of the tariff nomenclature. Signed in St Petersburg on 27 June 2025, it was ratified by Kazakhstan in July.
Uzbekistan’s inflation rises to 6.4% in September while Georgia’s holds at 5.6%
Consumer prices in Uzbekistan rose 6.4% in the year to September, 0.7% in the month and 4.2% since December, the statistics committee’s release of 5 October shows, against 8.0% a year earlier. In Georgia annual inflation stayed at 5.6% in September, unchanged from August, with transport up 18.7% on fuel, Geostat said on 2 October.
Tokayev and Oman’s Sultan adopt a joint statement and eight documents, none with a sum
Kazakhstan and Oman exchanged eight intergovernmental and inter-agency documents and adopted a joint statement after talks in Astana on 6 October, Akorda said as Kazinform carried it at 15:21, from investment protection and air services to a joint fund of Samruk-Kazyna and the Oman Investment Authority. No sum appears on the page. A settlement on the Dunga oil field, signed a day earlier, awaits Oman Oil’s signature.
The Middle Corridor is promised billions while its Caspian ferries sail part-empty
Brussels plans to attract up to €12 billion for the Middle Corridor. The sea at its centre has dropped about 2.5 metres in 30 years, Azerbaijan’s Institute of Geography says, and ferries leaving Kazakhstan already sail with part of their cargo space empty. On Wednesday the ministers of the five shore states met in Avaza to discuss it.
Baku signs four documents with London on green energy and transport links
Azerbaijan and the United Kingdom signed the protocol of the 8th session of their joint intergovernmental commission and three documents on green energy, transport links and urban mobility in Baku on Tuesday, Azertag reported, with energy minister Parviz Shahbazov and the UK trade minister Lord Anas Sarwar signing, and Ilham Aliyev received Sarwar with a letter from prime minister Andy Burnham.
The tenge’s official rate jumps 7.25 in a day to 454.98 and eases to 453.65 for Wednesday
The National Bank set the official rate at 454.98 tenge to the dollar for Tuesday 6 October, 7.25 tenge weaker than Monday’s 447.73, the largest one-day move in its series since the end of August, and at 453.65 for Wednesday after the day’s trading on KASE closed at that weighted average.
Kyrgyzstan moves to liquidate 35 more companies over sanctions risk after the first 16
An interdepartmental group under the presidential special representative Bakyt Sydykov has identified about 35 legal entities with heightened sanctions and compliance risks and decided to liquidate them, the economy and commerce ministry said on Tuesday, with a reasoned appeal already sent to the justice ministry to start forced liquidation.
Georgia’s 2027 budget reaches committee at 37.56 billion lari and a 2.5% deficit
The first version of Georgia’s 2027 state budget began its committee readings on Monday with consolidated receipts of 37.531 billion lari, 29.52 billion of them taxes, and spending of 37.562 billion, first deputy finance minister Giorgi Kakauridze told the education committee. It assumes 5% real growth, nominal GDP above 126 billion lari, a deficit of 2.5% of GDP and government debt at 31.6%.
Moody’s lifts Kyrgyzstan to B2 with a stable outlook, the cabinet says
Moody’s has raised Kyrgyzstan’s sovereign credit rating from B3 to B2 with a stable outlook, the cabinet’s press service said on Monday, citing a stronger credit profile, economic growth and better fiscal indicators. The rating remains below investment grade.
Turkmenistan reports 6.3% growth for 9 months and a budget collected to 100.1% of plan
The readout of the Cabinet of Ministers’ sitting of 2 October, held by video link under President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, puts GDP growth for January to September at 6.3%, budget revenue at 100.1% of plan and spending at 97.2%, and foreign trade turnover 8.3% above a year earlier. All figures are the state’s own, with no base sums printed.
Kazakhstan’s inflation slows to 9.3% in September as the tenge opens the week at 447.73
Annual inflation fell to 9.3% in September from 9.8% in August, the fourth monthly decline in a row, the Bureau of National Statistics reported on 1 October. Monthly inflation held at 0.6%. The National Bank set the official rate at 447.73 tenge to the dollar for Monday, with the base rate at 16.25% ahead of its decision of 23 October.
Ashgabat’s forum spends day 2 on a crypto road map to 2030 and prices no document
A deputy communications minister told the forum on Friday that Turkmenistan has a law on virtual assets and a road map to 2030 for regulating them and introducing mining: the Central Bank licenses crypto exchanges, the energy ministry sets tariffs for industrial mining and the finance ministry watches the money, Turkmenportal reported. The pages that list Thursday’s 7 documents still print no sum.
Uzbekistan’s Senate lets the Central Bank write its rules without the chamber of commerce
Senators approved on Friday a law that frees the Central Bank’s regulations from consent by the chamber of commerce and the business ombudsman, registers its prudential and monetary-policy acts at the justice ministry within 10 working days and lifts the 3-month wait before they take effect, Gazeta.uz reported. Checks on the regulator will need a Senate decision, and the drafting followed the IMF and World Bank’s FSAP advice.
At the EAEU council, Lukashenko asks Armenia where its brandy will go if it chooses the EU
The Eurasian Intergovernmental Council met in Minsk on Friday under Kazakhstan’s chairmanship, with Pashinyan on a video link. Bektenov put the union’s first-half growth at 1.1% and its investment at $244.5 billion, Mishustin said mutual trade rose 10% from January to July, and Lukashenko told the heads of delegations that Armenia should work out where its brandy and fruit will go before it hurries to the EU.
Astana and Ulaanbaatar set a $500 million trade target against $133.5 million last year
The 10th session of the Kazakhstan-Mongolia intergovernmental commission met in Astana on Thursday and signed a protocol that aims the two countries’ trade at $500 million under their 2025 to 2027 roadmap, Mongolia’s foreign ministry said. Kazakhstan’s agriculture ministry put 2025 trade at $133.5 million, with $123 million of it Kazakh exports, so the target is almost 4 times last year’s turnover.
Kyrgyzstan’s first satellite rides a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg and will be run from Bishkek
The president’s administration said the spacecraft went up on 1 October from Vandenberg in California on a SpaceX rideshare, the product of joint work with the United Arab Emirates. Sadyr Japarov, who watched the launch, said it is an earth-observation satellite for farmland, glaciers and disasters, built over about two and a half years, and that a communications satellite could follow in 5 to 10 years.
Ashgabat’s forum signs 7 documents on its first day and prints no sum for any of them
The state portal’s account of the opening day lists 5 memoranda and 2 contracts, among them Damen of the Netherlands twice, for the water authority’s fleet and for the Balkan shipyard to 2036, China State Construction with the railway ministry, Tianjin Bohua with Turkmenhimiya, a Korean telecoms firm and a German contract for Turkmennebit. More than 700 participants heard the finance minister price last year’s GDP at $77.4 billion.
Bishkek screens every cash exchange and every crypto firm’s owner as sanctions clocks run
The cabinet approved an anti-laundering strategy to 2030 and rewrote its 2025 rules for virtual-asset firms: beneficial owners vetted by the financial intelligence service, mining licences reported monthly, identification for every cash exchange whatever the sum. The documents name no deadline. Russia’s cash-rouble cap took effect on Tuesday, US sanctions on banks dealing with Russian state banks are due from 18 October, and EU and US lists carry Kyrgyz names.
ADB's president promises Mongolia $1.3 billion by 2027 and signs $455 million in a week
Asian Development Bank president Masato Kanda announced plans to invest $1.3 billion in Mongolia by 2027 during a visit in which he met President Khurelsukh, received the Friendship Medal and spoke at the CAREC ministerial conference, the bank said on Thursday. Three loans signed this week come to $455 million for provincial health, schools and disaster preparedness.