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Azerbaijan drafts its 2027 to 2030 strategy on a 1.2% year, with $91 billion in reserve, 5.6% of GDP in debt and 8.8 billion manat for defence
The drafts of a new development strategy for 2027 to 2030 and of the second State Programme of the Great Return have been discussed at the Economic Council and presented to President Aliyev, Report.az wrote on Thursday at 15:44, quoting prime minister Ali Asadov, and the numbers around them describe the year the strategy is written in: growth of 1.2% in January to August, 2.1% outside oil and gas and a fall of 0.8% inside it, strategic currency reserves of about $91 billion, external state debt of $4.5 billion or 5.6% of projected GDP, a trade surplus above $10 billion in 8 months and inflation of 5.7%, with 5.3% forecast for 2027. Approval is expected in the coming months, Report.az wrote.
Berdimuhamedov gives the Halk Maslahaty a 6.3% year, 41.2 billion manat of investment and 5,300 jobs and asks it for an industrial strategy to 2045
President Serdar Berdimuhamedov told the Halk Maslahaty’s session in Ashgabat that Turkmenistan’s growth “will amount to 6.3 percent” by the end of the year, that capital investment “will amount to over 41 billion 200 million manat” and that the jobs created by the year’s end “will amount to about 5 thousand 300”, the state portal’s text of the speech published late on Wednesday shows. The grain harvest delivered “over 1 million 400 thousand tonnes”, the cotton growers “will deliver 1 million 250 thousand tonnes”, the silk farms produced “over 2 thousand 100 tonnes of cocoons”, and the independence holiday will run 3 days, “27, 28 and 29 September”. He asked the session to adopt a National Strategy of Industrial Development for 2030 to 2045.
Kazakhstan’s Kurultai ratifies a framework with the AIIB for about $6 billion of concessional money over 5 years, at 1 to 1.5% a year, for 3 roads and a railway
The Kurultai adopted in 2 readings on Wednesday the law ratifying Kazakhstan’s framework partnership agreement with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, signed in February during the visit of the bank’s president Zou Jiayi, Kazinform and Zakon.kz reported. Deputy prime minister and national economy minister Serik Zhumangarin told the deputies the agreement lets the government draw “long money” on concessional terms of about $6 billion in the first 5 years after ratification, at 1 to 1.5% a year, for 17 projects worth $5.3 billion in transport, energy, health and green finance: the Zhezkazgan-Karaganda, Aktobe-Karabutak-Ulgaisyn and Atyrau-Dossor roads and the Moyynty-Kyzylzhar railway among them.
The ADB and the EBRD publish their autumn forecasts a day apart: Central Asia and Mongolia grow 5.8% on one count while the Caucasus slips on the other
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development put Central Asia and Mongolia at 5.8% growth in 2026 and 5.3% in 2027 in its Regional Economic Prospects published on Thursday: Kyrgyzstan 8.7% this year, Tajikistan 7.9%, Uzbekistan 7.5%, Mongolia and Turkmenistan 6.3%, Kazakhstan 4.7%. The Asian Development Bank’s September Outlook, published on Wednesday, raised Uzbekistan to 7.0% from 6.7% after an 8.5% first half and Georgia to 6.3% from 5.5%, cut Tajikistan to 7.0% from 7.3% and Azerbaijan to 1.6% from 2.0%, and left Kazakhstan at 4.8%, Kyrgyzstan at 8.9%, Turkmenistan at 6.3%, Armenia at 5.0% and Mongolia at 5.7%. Its subregion, the Caucasus and Central and West Asia, slips to 3.7% for 2026 and 4.1% for 2027, a tenth of a point down on July on both years.
Remittances to Kyrgyzstan fall to $279.5 million in July, 12% below a year earlier, with Russia sending 9 dollars in 10
Individuals sent $279.5 million to Kyrgyzstan in July, the National Bank’s figures show: $262.1 million from CIS countries, $253.9 million of it from Russia, and $17.4 million from further abroad. The month is $12.6 million below June’s record of $292.1 million and $38.2 million below the $317.7 million of July 2025, a fall of 12% on the year; money sent out of the country fell to $24.4 million from $35.5 million in June, $21.8 million of it to the CIS.
Diesel in Dushanbe falls 6% as Russian deliveries triple, while petrol rises 7.4% and liquefied gas 18% in 3 weeks
AI-92 petrol in Dushanbe costs about 14.50 somoni a litre against 13.50 at the end of August, liquefied gas 6.70 against 5.70 and diesel 15.50 against 16.50, Asia-Plus reported on Wednesday: petrol up about 7.4% in under a month, gas up about 18%, diesel down about 6%. The diesel fall follows Russia’s August deliveries of more than 56,000 tonnes against about 16,000 in July, a 3.5-fold rise; the reasons the authorities have given for the petrol rise are the world market, export restrictions in producing countries and transport costs.
Mongolia’s committees clear the 2026 budget rewrite’s third reading with a 2 trillion tugrik deficit and back $450 million from the ADB and the ¥158.3 billion airport loan on one day
The State Great Khural’s security and foreign policy committee took the third reading of the 2026 budget amendment on Wednesday with 15 of its 29 members present and sent its conclusions to the budget committee, the parliament’s site reported: balanced revenue of 31.9 trillion tugrik, expenditure of 34.0 trillion and a deficit of 2.0 trillion, with 107.3 billion for tariff-loss subsidies, 92.7 billion for power stations, 150.0 billion for food reserves, 170.1 billion for wage rises and 1,440.9 billion in savings. On the same day a joint sitting of the budget and security committees, 29 of 56 members present, backed the government’s 2 loan drafts, the Asian Development Bank’s $450 million “financing general programme” by 56.3% of those present and Japan’s ¥158.3 billion loan for the Chinggis Khaan airport by 66.7%, and sent its minutes and conclusions to the government.
Mongolia’s parliament committee backs a 158 billion yen Japanese loan at 1.1% to expand the Chinggis Khaan airport by 2034
The State Great Khural’s economic standing committee voted on Wednesday to support the government’s request to negotiate an exchange of notes with Japan and a loan agreement of up to 158,284,000,000 yen at 1.1% a year, with the principal free of repayment for the first 10 years, for the expansion of the Chinggis Khaan International Airport, the parliament’s site reported. It adds 81,900 square metres to the airport and is timed for operation in 2034; finance minister Z. Mendsaikhan presented it, and 59.4% of the members present supported it. From the committee its opinion goes to the budget committee and to the security and foreign policy committee.
Aliyev weighs a 5.3 billion manat mining programme to 2030 that must first re-count reserves last measured 40 years ago
President Ilham Aliyev chaired a meeting on Tuesday on the draft State Programme for the development of the mining and metallurgical industry for 2027 to 2030, AZERTAC reported at 14:35. Economy minister Mikayil Jabbarov put the investment at 5.3 billion manats over the 4 years, 1.1 billion from the state budget, 2.2 billion from state companies and 2 billion from private funds, with the sector’s contribution to GDP to rise from 700 million to 1.8 billion manats and its exports from 1.3 billion to 3.4 billion by 2030. The president’s own condition came before the targets: the reserve figures date from Soviet times, about 40 years ago, and are out of date.
Dushanbe’s tax bill triples the VAT threshold and taxes online shops at 3%, and 12 trades lose the simplified regime
Tajikistan’s government has sent parliament a package of Tax Code amendments that raises the turnover at which a business must register for VAT from 1 million to 3 million somoni, sets 3% as the simplified rate for firms between 2 and 3 million, puts a 3% turnover tax on online retail and removes construction, consulting, audit, medicines, markets and 7 other lines of business from the simplified regime altogether, Asia-Plus reported on Monday. The package arrives 10 days after the World Bank published a framework under which its grants to Dushanbe are expected to become credits from the fiscal year that began in July.
Kyrgyz banks lost 24.5 billion som of deposits in a month; the central bank calls it company payments as lending runs 22% above December
Deposits in Kyrgyzstan’s banks stood at 900.2 billion som on 31 July, 24.5 billion or 2.7% below June, and the sector’s assets fell 6.4% in the month. The National Bank told 24.kg on Monday that scheduled payments by companies and the state explain the moves and that the banks hold “a substantial margin of safety”.
Bishkek tells parliament it cannot hold pump prices next year, with 39 billion som pledged against inflation and an election on 27 January
Kyrgyzstan’s first deputy cabinet chairman, Daniyar Amangeldiev, told a parliamentary committee on Monday that the state pays “practically 40%” of the fuel price and that “next year we will not be able to hold it and will reduce it”. At the same sitting he put 39 billion som, about $446 million at Monday’s official rate, against inflation in 2027, naming fuel first. The compensation scheme that keeps AI-92 petrol at 87.90 som a litre runs to 31 December, 27 days before the presidential election.
A Rio Tinto mine outlives a government: Mongolia and the second deal
Mongolia’s parliament formally instructed the government to secure at least 53% of the economic benefit from the Rio Tinto-operated Oyu Tolgoi mine. Months later Rio Tinto and Ulaanbaatar agreed to cut financing and management costs and set 2027 as the target for the first dividends, and the public documents do not yet show the parliamentary requirement met in full. Madagascar, Bougainville and Juukan Gorge place the Mongolian case inside a wider pattern: Rio Tinto’s mines run for decades while the governments, contracts and communities around them change.
Kazakhstan's utilities overhaul has finished 14 of 347 projects as contractors win 112 complaints against its tenders
A deputy prime minister's review on Friday put the government's own numbers on the national project meant to renew Kazakhstan's utility and power networks by 2029. They show a programme budgeted at 13 trillion tenge and held up at the tender stage.
The World Bank offers Mongolia a non-binding 'Country Compact' for its mines as the stock exchange signs up London for dual listings
The World Bank has proposed drawing up a 'Country Compact' for Mongolia's mining and minerals sector, a document the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources describes as a declaration of goals, priorities, timelines and results, carrying no legally binding obligations, and neither a contract nor a memorandum, Montsame reported on Friday. A day earlier the Mongolian Stock Exchange and the Central Securities Depository announced a 'Mongolia Capital Market 2.0' roadmap with the London Stock Exchange Group covering trading, settlement and custody systems and dual listings for Mongolian companies, ikon.mn reported.
Uzbekistan's central bank holds 90% of its reserves in gold and now plans to take its bond book beyond US Treasury bills
Abror Mirzo Olimov, deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, told the first International Forum on Public Asset Management in Tashkent on Friday that the bank held about 439 tonnes of gold worth about $65 billion at the start of September, about 90% of international reserves of more than $72 billion, and that the bank plans to take its fixed-income portfolio of $1.766 billion, about 2.4% of reserves, beyond US Treasury bills into sovereign, subnational and other fixed-income instruments, Gazeta.uz and Spot reported.
Oyu Tolgoi's revenue runs $1.9 billion ahead of plan in 8 months; the copper dividend is still dated 2027
Oyu Tolgoi LLC earned $5.5 billion in January to August against a plan of $3.6 billion, ikon.mn reported on Thursday from the company's quarterly report, with copper output at 276,000 tonnes against 251,700 planned and gold at 339,000 ounces against 286,000. Taxes, fees and other payments to the state stood at ₮834 billion as of the second quarter, about $232 million at the central bank's rate posted for Thursday.
Uzbekistan's asset agency puts $145 million of privatisation money in the budget and an $851 million Mobiuz deal on a year-end clock
The deputy director of the State Assets Management Agency, Alisher Miraliev, told Spot at the Cbonds capital-market conference on Thursday that the $65 million paid for Humo and the $80 million paid for SamAuto have reached the budget in full, that the consortium which won Mobiuz is negotiating a contract to close by the end of 2026, and that Asakabank may be the first state bank sold, though not this year.
The WMO writes the region's water year down: reservoirs below normal from Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan, the Aral basin's rivers in decline, glaciers with one of their 3 worst years on record
The World Meteorological Organization's State of Global Water Resources 2025, published on Thursday, records inflows to the reservoirs of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan below or well below the 1991 to 2020 normal, a decline in flow across the Aral Sea basin, and the glacier balance of Central Asia in the year to September 2025 among the 3 most negative on record. Globally, 2021 to 2025 was one of the driest runs for river flow since observations began in 1991. Every water instrument the region has put on paper this month is priced to a river the report says is running short.
Washington's new tariff law counts Russian gas by volume, and Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are closing in on its top five
The House cleared the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act for the President on Wednesday with a 262 to 159 vote. It lets him put duties of up to 100% on all goods from the 5 largest buyers of Russian crude or gas. By the volumes on the record, Astana and Tashkent are fourth and fifth on the gas list, with about 1 billion cubic metres or less between them and the buyers behind.