The Financial Times profiles a recent proposal made by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to formulate yearly budgets every year as opposed to the traditional three years. The government’s official reasoning is that fluctuating oil prices make economic planning difficult. The real reason, according to the FT is that Russia is concerned about a looming…
Ukraine reached an agreement with a group of its creditors to restructure its debt and avoid a looming default. The investors will accept a 20% write-off on the estimated $18 billion in debt on the country’s bonds and accept a freeze on repayment for the next four years. The Ukrainian finance ministry has lauded the…
Kazakhstan continues to feel the consequences of both a prolonged slump in global oil prices and China’s devaluation of the yuang. The drop in oil prices to below $50/ a barrel has led Sino-Kazakh drilling company Velikaya Stena to lay off more than 200 employees in an effort to cut costs. The layoffs are partially…
The New York Times writes that Ukraine is moving quickly to avoid a repeat of the ongoing Greece crisis and restructure its debt. The article contends that the Ukrainian government, along with the IMF, is attempting to strong-arm creditors into accepting “big losses” in the process of negotiating a bailout deal. The government currently stands…
Ukraine has threatened to issue a debt moratorium and cease making payments to creditors if terms favorable to the government are not reached by the end of June. This latest piece of news comes as the Ukrainian government continues debt restructuring negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, although with a deadline fixed at the end…
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced that it will lend $1 billion to Kazakhstan in 2015. The $1 billion lent constitutes the largest amount the EBRD has ever allocated to Kazakhstan, something it attributes to a growing and diversifying economy. Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev in part based his campaign for reelection on the…
Despite some encouraging signs related to Ukraine’s economy, the International Monetary Fund issued a statement yesterday saying that the Ukrainian economy has declined sharply as a result of the conflict, and that it may continue to do so should sporadic instances of fighting in eastern Ukraine continue. IMF Mission Chief Nikolay Gueorguiev has spoken in…
