Search
Mongolia’s exports rise 51% in nine months to $16.2 billion on copper and coal
Mongolia sold $16.2 billion of goods abroad in January to September, 51.2% or $5.5 billion more than a year earlier, the National Statistics Committee reported through Montsame on Monday. Imports rose 13.8% to $9.7 billion and the trade surplus tripled to $6.5 billion. Copper ore and concentrate supplied $3.1 billion of the increase and coal $2 billion.
The tenge’s official rate steps to 453.93 for the weekend and holds there for Monday
The National Bank set the official dollar rate at 453.93 tenge for Saturday 10 October and kept it for Monday, by its daily series. That is 4.99 above Friday’s 448.94. Last week ran from 447.73 to 454.98 and back to 447.14, and the bank’s next rate decision is on 23 October.
Russia’s watchdog halts wine, cognac, beer and Nabeglavi water from six Georgian producers
Russia’s consumer watchdog ordered a halt to the import and sale of drinks from six Georgian producers, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported on Saturday, citing an order obtained by RBC. On the list are wines from Tbilvino, Teliani Valley, Wineman and Askaneli Brothers, whose cognac is also named, beer from the Georgian Beer Company, Nabeglavi mineral water and one Coca-Cola soft drink. The order calls itself a temporary sanitary measure.
Azerbaijan’s GDP grows 1.5% in nine months as the oil sector shrinks 1.2%
Azerbaijan’s gross domestic product reached 102.0 billion manats in January to September, 1.5 per cent more than a year earlier, the State Statistics Committee reported on Friday, with the oil and gas sector down 1.2 per cent to 30.3 billion and the rest of the economy up 2.6 per cent to 71.7 billion. Budget revenue ran 2.8 per cent above plan.
S&P affirms Mongolia at BB- as the central bank tells MPs inflation hit 13% in July
S&P affirmed Mongolia’s BB- rating with a stable outlook on 8 October, the government’s communications office reported on Friday, with net external debt seen falling from 184 per cent of current account receipts in 2020 to 58 per cent this year. A day earlier central bank governor Narantsogt told MPs inflation reached 13 per cent in July and policy stays tight until it returns to about 5.
Georgian prosecutors investigate a central bank board member over an alleged crypto stake
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia opened an investigation on Friday into Nana Keinishvili, a member of the National Bank’s board since September 2023, under article 337 of the Criminal Code on illegal participation in entrepreneurial activity by a public official, acting on statements and audio recordings that the crypto operator Bitexchange sent to the bank. The board will consider her temporary recusal at its next sitting, the bank said.
Kazakhstan’s current account turns to a $2.4 billion surplus as the tenge slips to 448.94
Kazakhstan’s current account showed a surplus of $2.4 billion, or 1.6 per cent of GDP, in the first half of 2026 after a deficit of $13.1 billion for the whole of 2025, the Ministry of National Economy said on Friday from National Bank data, the first surplus in three years. For Friday the official dollar rate is 448.94 tenge, up from 447.14 on Thursday.
ADB grants Tajikistan $20.5 million to digitise pensions for 250,000 pensioners
The Asian Development Bank approved a $20.5 million grant on 2 October to modernise Tajikistan’s Agency of Social Insurance and Pension, $19.5 million of it from the Asian Development Fund and $1 million from the Japan-financed High-Level Technology Fund, by its release from Dushanbe. A new platform is to serve 320,000 contributors and 250,000 pensioners, and $12.32 million comes from ADB’s Middle East conflict package.
Britain sanctions a Kyrgyz Finance Ministry payment company and two Bishkek processors
The UK Sanctions List added Processing KG, whose sole shareholder is Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Finance, its director Ulan Bukabaev, TokenSpot and Tsunami Payments on Thursday under the Russia regime, 24.kg reported at 21:22 Bishkek time from the Foreign Office’s notice. All three face an asset freeze and a ban on payments through them, and London cites reasonable grounds to suspect business of economic significance to the Russian government.
US, Korean and Chinese companies eye UzAuto Motors as Navoiazot’s pre-sale clean-up begins
Companies from the United States, South Korea and China have shown interest in buying UzAuto Motors, the director of Uzbekistan’s State Assets Management Agency Sohibjon Murodov said at a press conference on Thursday, adding that the carmaker goes to open international tender whoever asks. Navoiazot’s financial recovery has begun, and Paynet’s sale went by a pre-emptive right, he said, by Spot.
Britain’s trade minister sits in Akorda as UK Export Finance takes a seat in Yerevan
Tokayev received Lord Anas Sarwar, the UK Minister of State for Trade, on Wednesday and invited Prime Minister Andy Burnham to visit, citing trade up 83% in 2025 to over $1.6 billion and more than 500 British companies, by Akorda’s readout as Zakon carried it. The same evening the first Armenia-United Kingdom Business Forum drew about 2,000 participants and a UK Export Finance team to Yerevan, by Armenpress.
Four of the commission’s five members set the Syr Darya’s winter regime at Avaza
The Interstate Coordination Water Commission’s 95th session agreed water-withdrawal volumes and reservoir regimes for the 2026 to 2027 non-growing season on Wednesday, after Shardara received 3.69 billion cubic metres in the growing season, 840 million above forecast, by Kazakhstan’s water ministry as Kazinform carried it. The Turkmen chair’s readout and the Kazakh one name four delegations, and neither names Kyrgyzstan.
The National Bank’s dollar rate falls to 447.14 after Tuesday’s 454.98 peak
The official rate for Thursday is 447.14 tenge per dollar, 6.51 below Wednesday’s 453.65 and 7.84 below Tuesday’s 454.98, the highest reading of the week, by the National Bank’s daily series. That returns half of the 15.61 the tenge lost between 30 September and Tuesday.
On the dry Mongolian Plateau, steadier plant cover comes with less growth, a study finds
A study of 306 grassland sites on the Mongolian Plateau, 286 of them in China’s Inner Mongolia, finds that the drier the site, the more its plants trade biomass for water-use efficiency and steadier greenness. Mongolia measures its own fight against land degradation in trees planted, 140 million so far against a billion promised by 2030.
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.