Press

ASTANA – The forum of Central Asia’s Foreign Ministers and the Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which took place for the first time in this format on Oct. 31 in Ashgabat, addressed crucial aspects of cooperation between the states within the OSCE, reported the Kazakh Foreign Ministry’s press…

In Moody’s international credit risk rating, Kyrgyzstan this year moved from “negative” to “stable” level. The agency notes that, despite the fluctuations caused by the situation in Ukraine and its close ties with the Russian economy, the economy of Kyrgyzstan demonstrates stability. It is noted that even after the nationalization of the Kumtor mine, foreign investment in…

S&P Global Ratings, one of the “big three” global ratings agencies, has revised its outlook and upgraded the ratings for five banks in Kazakhstan — Halyk Bank, Kaspi Bank, Bank CenterCredit, ForteBank and Nurbank. S&P experts pointed out that in recent years Kazakhstan’s banking sector has demonstrated increased resilience to macroeconomic risks, especially against the…

Uzbekistan is grappling with a natural gas production crunch, putting pressure on state coffers. In February, Tashkent sharply reduced gas supplies to China, according to a March 28 report published by the UzDaily.uz website. The drop in export volume resulted in a sharp downturn in earnings, from $38.77 million in January to $18.6 million in February, according to…

Authoritarian excess is nothing new in Turkmenistan. But a recent government mandate that all female high school students in a seaside province undergo “virginity testing” marks another low point. The tests are not just an outrageous violation of individual rights, they are ineffective in determining whether a woman is sexually active. Turkmen authorities in Balkan Province,…