Economy
Business and investment
Baku delays its e-transfer reporting rule to January and rewrites the thresholds
A day before Azerbaijan's banks were to start reporting every electronic transfer by a client whose transfers had passed 20,000 manat in a year, the Financial Monitoring Service moved the start to 1 January 2027 and rewrote the test. Reporting will follow any single transfer of 20,000 manat or more and, for individuals, every further transfer in a month once the month's total passes 50,000 manat.
Dushanbe and Moscow sign a Digmai tailings protocol and target 2.5 times the trade by 2030
The 22nd session of the Russia-Tajikistan intergovernmental commission in Dushanbe, chaired by Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda and Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, signed a protocol amending the Rosatom roadmap on the Digmai tailings and set a goal of multiplying trade 2.5 times by 2030 from $2.47 billion last year, Avesta and TASS reported on Thursday. Rahmon received Khusnullin, and oil-product supplies were among the subjects.
Georgia's budget annex lists 8 arbitration claims at $4.8 billion, half its 2027 tax plan
The fiscal-risk analysis attached to Georgia's 2027 draft, published on Thursday, lists 8 pending international arbitrations with claims of $4.8 billion, about 12.6 billion lari and half of the draft's 25.2 billion lari tax plan. Two cases already lost, ENKA's over the Namakhvani dam and Inter RAO's, carry about $582 million between them, and ENKA took its award to a Washington court in September.
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the UAE sign a memorandum on a rail route to Pakistan's ports
The transport ministries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and the UAE's Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure signed a memorandum on 30 September to study a new railway, named CASA, running from Kazakhstan through Uzbekistan and Afghanistan to Pakistan's seaports, the Kazakh government said. The parties will run technical and economic studies and are considering a working group on the project's financing.
Georgia publishes 2027 spending with no revenue line as the central bank curbs credit
Georgia's finance ministry sent parliament a first 2027 draft on 30 September with spending of GEL 37.56 billion, growth of 5%, GDP of GEL 126.4 billion and GDP per head of $12,000, and its release carried no revenue, deficit or debt figure. On the same afternoon the National Bank announced tighter payment-to-income limits for borrowers earning GEL 1,500 to 2,500 a month.
Ashgabat opens its investment forum with TAPI as the one project its president names
The Turkmenistan Investment Forum opens on 1 October at the Ýyldyz hotel in Ashgabat for two days. The finance and economy ministry and the foreign ministry organise it with Turkmen Congress, and the programme, as News Central Asia reports it, lists delegations from more than 45 countries and the World Bank, IFC, ADB and EBRD. President Serdar Berdimuhamedov's address names one project, the TAPI pipeline's Serhetabat-Herat section, as under construction.
Mirziyoyev sets out 100 English-language STEM schools and 300 foreign campuses
Meeting teachers ahead of Teachers' Day on 30 September, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said 40,000 Uzbek teachers now earn $1,000 a month and 1,500 more than $2,000. He set new targets: 100 schools teaching mathematics, informatics and science entirely in English from next year, branches of 300 leading universities, subsidised private schools in 52 overloaded districts and a doubled tax-free income threshold for private-school parents.
Uzbekistan’s external debt reaches $84.1 billion as imports run 24% ahead of a year earlier
Uzbekistan’s total external debt stood at $84.1 billion on 1 July, $1.9 billion more than on 1 January, the Central Bank’s half-year review of the balance of payments says. Of that, the state owed $41.7 billion and companies and banks $42.4 billion. The current account ran a deficit of about $6.2 billion in the first half, with exports of goods down 8.6% and imports up 24%.
Mongolia signs a ¥158.3 billion JICA loan at 1.1% over 40 years to triple its main airport
Finance minister Z. Mendsaikhan and JICA’s president Tanaka Akihiko signed the financing agreement for the Chinggis Khaan airport expansion on Tuesday, during Prime Minister Uchral’s visit to Japan, MNB reported on Wednesday morning. The loan is ¥158.3 billion at a fixed 1.1% a year over 40 years, with 10 years’ grace on principal. Capacity rises from 1.6 million to 5.2 million passengers a year.
Merz asks Tokayev for oil in Russia’s place, and Berlin signs 30 documents worth about $2 billion
Germany wants Kazakh oil to replace the Russian oil it no longer buys, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said beside Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the Chancellery on Tuesday afternoon. At the same press conference Tokayev counted more than 30 commercial documents worth about $2 billion for the day. He also called Vladimir Putin an outstanding statesman and spoke of freezing hostilities in Ukraine so that talks could begin.
Russia caps cash roubles for 7 neighbours at 1 million a head and bans firms from carrying any
A decree Vladimir Putin signed on Tuesday bans anyone from carrying more than 1 million roubles in cash out of Russia into the other 4 members of the Eurasian Economic Union, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan or Uzbekistan. Companies and sole traders may carry none, with 3 exceptions. The $100,000 ceiling that had applied since April is gone, and cash above the limit is confiscated at the border.
The World Bank prices the corridor at $55 billion to 2040, with $30 billion of it beyond the track
A World Bank report published on Monday says the Trans-Caspian corridor’s development could triple its volumes, halve its travel times, add 3.3% to the 9 countries’ GDP and create 2 million jobs by 2040. The bill it attaches is at least $25 billion of physical infrastructure and an estimated $30 billion of enabling investment. With reforms, the Bank says, the volumes would quadruple.
Sughd expects €32 million from the EBRD for Khujand’s sewers and €70 million for Mastchoh’s water
The EBRD will finance the modernisation of Khujand’s sewerage system with €32 million under its Green Cities programme, the Sughd regional administration’s press service said after its chairman Rajab Ahmadzoda met the bank’s head of office in Tajikistan, Holger Wiefel. Design is complete and the main works are planned for 2027. A second project, €70 million for Mastchoh district’s water supply and irrigation, is also to start in 2027.
2 Uzbek-Kazakh border posts go round the clock as trucks through Syrdarya rise 10%
Uzbekistan's Customs Committee said on Monday evening that the Malik-Syrdarya and Ok Oltin-Tselinny crossings with Kazakhstan will move to 24-hour operation and that the Gishtkuprik customs post is to open in the fourth quarter of 2026. More than 9,200 trucks passed through Syrdarya in September, 10% more than a year earlier, Spot reported at 20:43 Tashkent time.
AIIB signs €158 million for Georgia's Kakheti roads under the Trans-Caspian corridor project
Georgia and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank signed a loan of about €158.5 million on Monday at the bank's annual meeting in Doha, the finance ministry said: two new four-lane sections of the Kakheti highway, Badiauri to Chalaubani and Chalaubani to Bakurtsikhe, and a road from Gurjaani to Telavi, 67.4 kilometres in all, inside a €316.8 million road package the World Bank is co-financing.
Tokayev in Berlin: German business expects 37 projects worth €1.8 billion, Merz this afternoon
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrived in Germany on Monday evening at Frank-Walter Steinmeier's invitation, Akorda said. The German-Kazakh Business Forum opens on Tuesday at the Haus der Deutschen Wirtschaft in Berlin, where the Ost-Ausschuss expects 37 bilateral projects worth €1.8 billion to be signed, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz receives him at the chancellery in the afternoon to talk energy and raw materials.
Georgian Railway buys 200 wagons from Russia for $9.6 million after every tender failed
The railway signed a direct contract with the Roslavl wagon-repair plant for 200 open wagons at $48,000 each, on a decision of its supervisory board of 27 August, Novosti Gruzii reported on 24 September. Director general Lasha Abashidze gave two reasons: no European maker builds freight wagons for the 1,520 mm gauge, and the Russian price was the lowest.
ADB lends Mongolia $100 million against disasters that killed 726 people in a decade
The Asian Development Bank approved a $100 million loan on Monday for the National Emergency Management Agency: firefighting vehicles, search and rescue, and a digital risk system with early warning. Its ledger for 2015 to 2024 counts more than 40,500 disasters, 726 deaths, 11.5 million livestock lost and ₮1.9 trillion of damage.
Uzbekistan moves funded pensions out of Xalq Bank in 2027 and hands them to hired managers
The draft decree under public discussion until Wednesday transfers the funded pension system from Xalq Bank to the Pension Fund from 2027, the fund’s executive director Murodbek Otajonov said on Friday, and the money will then go to investment managers chosen by competition. A separate supervisory board, with foreign experts on it, will take the investment decisions instead of the government.
Georgia’s 19 banks earned 2.56 billion lari in 8 months, 20% more than a year earlier, with Bank of Georgia and TBC holding 87% of the profit and 75% of the assets
The National Bank of Georgia’s figures for January to August 2026, as Business Media Georgia tabulated them on Thursday, give the sector a net profit of 2,564.6 million lari, up 20% on the same months of 2025, on assets of 115.2 billion lari. Bank of Georgia earned 1,291 million and TBC 936.8 million, together 87% of the total, and the two hold 75% of the assets; 15 banks were profitable and 4 lost money, Silk Bank most, at 18.26 million lari.