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339 articles
Kyrgyzstan puts a 74.5 billion som price on its melting glaciers
EconomyAnalysis8 Sept

Kyrgyzstan puts a 74.5 billion som price on its melting glaciers

A decree signed by President Sadyr Japarov creates a fund for the protection of Kyrgyzstan's glaciers and Lake Issyk-Kul, 24.kg reported on Tuesday morning, five days after the environment ministry published a draft National Adaptation Plan to 2035 costed at 74.5 billion som ($852 million), 54% of it expected from foreign grants and climate funds. The decree gives the cabinet until 1 October to say what the fund is and where its money comes from.

Mongolia's premier reaches into the coal company's profit for the pension rise, and the auditor puts the deficit at 2% of GDP
EconomyAnalysis8 Sept

Mongolia's premier reaches into the coal company's profit for the pension rise, and the auditor puts the deficit at 2% of GDP

Nyam-Osoryn Uchral said on Monday, as the State Great Khural's extraordinary session opened on the budget amendment, that this year's pension and wage increases will be paid with โ‚ฎ1.5 trillion ($417 million) taken from Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi as a dividend, through an amendment to the law that keeps state companies' dividends out of the budget. On Tuesday the general auditor told the same chamber that the package adds โ‚ฎ998 billion of spending with no new revenue and fails the fiscal rule's primary-balance test.

Mongolia's parliament opens a budget rewrite that turns a 57% export jump into pensions and pay rises
EconomyAnalysis7 Sept

Mongolia's parliament opens a budget rewrite that turns a 57% export jump into pensions and pay rises

The State Great Khural opened its extraordinary session at 10:02 on Monday with 64.3% of its members in the hall and one package before it: the amendment to the 2026 budget that the government submitted on 20 August. In the parliament's own summary the case is four numbers. The economy grew 7.6% over seven months, exports reached $12 billion, up 57%, and the government wants โ‚ฎ250,000 ($70) a month more for 435,000 pensioners and 20 to 50% more for 149,000 state employees. Both increases are permanent. Both begin in the year's last two months, and the full bill arrives in 2027, the year the government's own draft budget suspends the spending cap.

Kazakhstan's central bank forecasts at $89 oil, and names next year's fiscal stimulus as the limit on its cuts
EconomyAnalysis4 Sept

Kazakhstan's central bank forecasts at $89 oil, and names next year's fiscal stimulus as the limit on its cuts

The National Bank cut its base rate to 16.25% on Friday and told the market why the room below it is limited: next year's budget will spend more, and the extra comes from the National Fund. The bank's own forecast runs on $89 oil this year. The budget law now in force was written at $60.

Kazakhstan's central bank decides with its first sub-10% print and Brent 58% above the budget's price
EconomyAnalysis4 Sept

Kazakhstan's central bank decides with its first sub-10% print and Brent 58% above the budget's price

The National Bank of Kazakhstan announces its base-rate decision at 12:00 Astana time on Friday with August inflation at 9.8%, the first reading under 10% since the bank began cutting in June, and Brent at $95. The budget the bank is asked to protect was written at $60 a barrel and 540 tenge to the dollar; the market has delivered $95 and 456.

KazMunayGas takes $500 million of the $658 million its dollar bondholders offered
EconomyBrief3 Sept

KazMunayGas takes $500 million of the $658 million its dollar bondholders offered

Holders of KazMunayGas's 5.375% notes due 2030 tendered $658.1 million by the early deadline of 2 September, the company said on Thursday. It will buy $500 million of them, the cap it set in August, at a proration factor of 73.1%, and settle on 4 September.

Uzbekistan's governors get 3.2 trillion soums to lend after 17% of last year's new firms close
EconomyBrief3 Sept

Uzbekistan's governors get 3.2 trillion soums to lend after 17% of last year's new firms close

Shavkat Mirziyoyev told a meeting on poverty on Thursday that 15,000 of the 86,000 small enterprises created in the regions over the past year have already stopped work, and that about 62,000 citizens are struggling to repay the bank loans that started their businesses. His answer puts the lending decision in headquarters run by the hokims, the regional and district governors.

The OPEC Fund lends Dushanbe $30 million for 82 km of the road to China
EconomyBrief3 Sept

The OPEC Fund lends Dushanbe $30 million for 82 km of the road to China

The Vienna-based fund will finance the first stage of the Rushan to Varzesh reconstruction in Gorno-Badakhshan, 82.2 of 235 km on the corridor that runs from Dushanbe through Kulma to the Chinese border, Asia-Plus reported on Wednesday.

Baku's fuel for Armenia nears 20,000 tonnes, and every wagon still goes through Georgia
EconomyAnalysis3 Sept

Baku's fuel for Armenia nears 20,000 tonnes, and every wagon still goes through Georgia

Another 17 tank wagons of Azerbaijani diesel leave Baku's Bilajari yard for the Georgian border today. The running total the Baku press prints, near 15,000 tonnes of diesel and 5,000 of petrol, is small against Armenia's import book and large as a fact: the peace dividend is counted in wagons, and its only track runs through a third country.

Mongolia's parliament returns on 7 September to rewrite this year's budget
EconomyBrief2 Sept

Mongolia's parliament returns on 7 September to rewrite this year's budget

The Speaker's Council called an extraordinary session of the State Great Khural for 7 to 14 September with one item on it: the amendment to the 2026 budget. The 2027 draft filed on 31 August, the one that suspends the spending rule, is not on the list.

The remittance machine gets a new price list
EconomyAnalysis2 Sept

The remittance machine gets a new price list

From 1 September a migrant in Moscow carries a phone that reports where he sleeps, pays 10,000 roubles a month for the right to work, and sends money home over rails the EU has started to sanction. The money keeps coming. What changed is what each dollar of it now costs.

Ulaanbaatar's 2027 budget suspends its own spending rule for a year
EconomyBrief2 Sept

Ulaanbaatar's 2027 budget suspends its own spending rule for a year

The government sent parliament a 2027 budget on Monday with 41.3 trillion tugriks of revenue, 43.6 trillion of spending and a 2.3 trillion deficit, and asked to switch off the spending ceiling of the Fiscal Stability Law for the year. The exemption is justified by one-off money: state-company and Oyu Tolgoi dividends, domestic securities and last year's carry-overs.

Turkmenistan's exchange bulletin returns with a $7.3 million week
EconomyBrief1 Sept

Turkmenistan's exchange bulletin returns with a $7.3 million week

The state commodity exchange published a weekly trade report for the last week of August: 8 transactions, just over $7.27 million in foreign-currency sales and 8.2 million manat in domestic deals. Buyers came from the UAE, Turkey and Afghanistan.

The rule leaves, the money stays
EconomyAnalysis31 Aug

The rule leaves, the money stays

COP17 closed with $1.3 billion in restoration and drought finance and no drought framework. The instrument fight moves to Egypt in 2028, and Central Asia spends the pause competing for discretionary money it helped argue into existence.

Ulaanbaatar closes the drought books at $1.3 billion
EconomyBrief31 Aug

Ulaanbaatar closes the drought books at $1.3 billion

COP17 closed at the end of last week with a $1.3 billion restoration and drought portfolio for 23 countries, while the decision on a global drought regime travels on to Egypt.

Uzbekistan and India trade up to a comprehensive partnership
EconomyBrief31 Aug

Uzbekistan and India trade up to a comprehensive partnership

Modi's Tashkent stop closed on Sunday with the relationship raised to a comprehensive strategic partnership, 10 documents signed and a $5 billion trade target set for 2030.

Remittances into Kyrgyzstan clear $1.5 billion by midyear
EconomyBrief28 Aug

Remittances into Kyrgyzstan clear $1.5 billion by midyear

Money transfers into Kyrgyzstan reached $1,539.5 million in January through June against $150.6 million sent out, by the National Bank's half-year count carried on Friday: a net inflow of $1.39 billion, and a corridor that in June ran 92.8% through the CIS.

Ulaanbaatar takes back 407 pieces of its greenbelt
EconomyBrief28 Aug

Ulaanbaatar takes back 407 pieces of its greenbelt

The governor of Mongolia's capital revoked land rights on 407 plots in the forested belt around Ulaanbaatar, out of 11,706 granted there, after inspections of 26 summer-cottage zones, the state agency Montsame reported on Friday.

Tashkent's gas ledger runs 4 to 1 toward imports
EconomyBrief28 Aug

Tashkent's gas ledger runs 4 to 1 toward imports

Seven months of 2026 put Uzbekistan's gas trade in one line: $1.1 billion bought from Russia and Turkmenistan, $279.7 million sold to China, and the selling side down 36.2% on the year, by the national statistics committee's count carried on Friday.

The drought rule leaves Ulaanbaatar for Egypt
EconomyBrief28 Aug

The drought rule leaves Ulaanbaatar for Egypt

The fight that defined the desertification summit's second week ends without an instrument: negotiators reached what the talks' rapporteurs called a delicate agreement to carry the drought question to COP18, and the closing plenary was set to adopt the package on Friday afternoon in Ulaanbaatar.