Iran on November 4 announced a 10-fold increase in its enriched uranium production. The move, declared on the 40th anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran which sparked the Iran ... more
Erdogan’s Syria attraction has ended. He invaded some parts of Syria and he is talking about building some cities there for Syrian immigrants although that sounds like a dream. His latest military ... more
Ukraine’s economy is coming on very nicely. Growth is still sub-par but the economy is growing at about 3% andits still early days as the government is only two months into the job. But before ... more
The Russian economy was looking healthier than it has done in a long time in October and the Kremlin is clearly more comfortable as sanction fears failed to appear so the government is changing its ... more
Georgia’s economic growth accelerated to 5.7% in the third quarter of 2019, up from 4.5% y/y in Q2 and 4.7% y/y in Q1, according to preliminary data released by statistics office Geostat on October ... more
Erdogan’s in action again. While we’re concluding this report Turkish jets were bombing Kurds in northern Syria. Risks are huge as usual and there is again bipartisan fury in the US Congress. ... ... more
Iran and the US have one month to find their way to the nuclear deal negotiating table, France’s foreign minister warned on October 4. At last week’s UN General Assembly gathering of world ... more
Growth in the second quarter remains slow with the economy expanding by 0.9% year-on-year – well below potential. What is holding growth back is the very slow start to the government’s RUB27 ... more
Economically everything in Ukraine is going swimmingly, except perhaps inflation is a bit too high and wages are a bit too low. However, politically Ukraine had a very tough September that saw all ... more
Georgia’s economic growth remained robust at 5.8% y/y in August following the record 6.1% y/y advance in July, according to estimated data released by statistics office Geostat. The figure put the ... more
The new government of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was sworn in on August 29 and went straight to work. A tsunami of draft bills on every possible subject from reforming the railroads ... more
Growth picked up slightly in the second quarter of this year to 0.9% from the very soggy 0.5% in the first quarter, which was at the top of the range of predictions, but is, in effect, still a ... more
Georgia’s economy accelerated to a growth rate of 6.1% y/y in July from 4.9% in Q1 and Q2, marking the sharpest advance this year, according to estimated data released by statistics office Geostat ... more
Iran said on September 2 that it is prepared to take a “stronger step” in reducing its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal if European countries do not act to shield its economy from heavy US ... more
Signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) “must comply with the terms of the agreement to the same extent as Tehran does”, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on July 3, ... more
Georgia, the small South Caucasus country of 3.9mn, expanded by 4.9% y/y in the second quarter of the year, matching the expansion seen in the first quarter, preliminary estimates from the ... more
With Ukraine’s GDP expected to hit $150bn this year, the nation is on track to record 60% cumulative GDP growth since 2016, when it was $93.4bn. Over the last four years, the hryvnia dollar ... more
Ukraine GDP rose 2.5% in 1Q19, updated stats show. The economy continues to underperform. Following the 15% contraction in 2016 the economy should be bouncing back more vigorously than it is but the ... more
The June 23 Istanbul revote has delivered an earthquake in Turkish politics—Ekrem Imamoglu, candidate for the main opposition party, has recorded a stunning victory over the candidate backed by ... more
Signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) “must comply with the terms of the agreement to the same extent as Tehran does”, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on July 3, ... more