The yuan’s devaluation and the subsequent fall of the tenge have been rippling through the global economy. Central Asian governments are now considering devaluing their own currencies to keep pace with the Kazakh tenge and Chinese RMB, primarily due to how exchange rates affect balance of trade. Export dependent countries like Kazakhstan with its oil…

In a long-expected but still stunning move, Kazakhstan’s Central Bank has relinquished control of its exchange rate, allowing a free float. The currency immediately plunged against a basket of other world reserve currencies by some 23%, by far the largest drop in the history of the tenge currency, even surpassing last year’s unilateral 19% devaluation…

Russia’s “Pivot to the East” may have been ill-timed, with the Shanghai Composite Index suffering its worst decline in many years and a small but significant devaluation in the yuan means that Russian exports to China have lost part of their value. Russia’s economy has contracted 4.6% YoY, and China’s status as Russia’s largest trade…

The next battleground for the Iran deal is now predictably, being played out throughout Washington DC’s lobbying firms as major corporate and business interests line up on both sides to lobby Congressional leaders on their support for the deal. The Obama Administration has been considering making the deal an executive agreement, which would circumvent the…

In a surprising move, Beijing usurped the win from Almaty to host the 2022 Winter Olympic games, making the city the first in the history of the games to host both the Summer and Winter versions. Almaty, despite receiving 40 votes from the IOC to Beijing’s 44 votes, has little experience hosting international sporting events,…

The Ukrainian constitutional court today ruled that a bill proposing greater decentralization of power in Ukraine does not contravene the constitution. The new bill, proposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier this month, would allow each of Ukraine’s regions greater flexibility and create a “separate law” which would be used to govern the regions currently…

In a number of moves all announced this week, the Central Bank of Kazakhstan looks to be feeling the strain of falling crude prices. The first arrangement sees the Kazakh central bank taking a 10% stake in KazMunaiGas, the state oil company using funds from the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund. This can only mean that…

Kyrgyzstan has followed through on its threat to cancel a cooperation agreement with the US after the US awarded a human rights prize to Azimzhan Askarov, an activist currently serving a life sentence in Kyrgyz prison. Human Rights Groups have recently demanded Askarov’s release from jail, and the deal had granted US personnel connected with…

Indian PM Narendra Modi is once again breaking down old barriers in foreign policy, this time with Iran. An Indian national security advisor described the accord that was reached with Iran and the P5+1 powers as the “best deal available.” India has been cautiously sending various ministers to Iran for months now, including its national…

Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lauded the nuclear deal with Iran, but most Russian analysts and officials were quick to point out that the deal locks in Iran’s return to global oil markets, essentially guaranteeing a price cut at a time of extreme vulnerability for Russian government revenue. The Kremlin chose to stress the positives…