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…
The ruble has slid to its lowest point in five weeks after the CBR suspended its foreign exchange auctions in order to keep the value from going too high. Specifically, the CR suspended the sale of its one-year foreign currency repurchase agreements, purposefully focusing any remaining investor attention on high-yield ruble-denominated assets. The CBR is…
Russia announced that it may partially repeal an embargo leveled against European food imports. Specifically, Moscow may begin to allow for imports from approximately 20 firms from Hungary, Cyprus and Greece back into the Russian market after an embargo worth $9 billion was imposed in August of 2014. Incidentally, in order to make up for…
Christopher Weafer is the founder of Macro-Advisory, a research consulting company focusing on Russia, the CIS, and macro oil trends and was recently in 2013 voted the best Russian investment strategist in a poll by Thomas Reuters Extel. Before becoming a consultant, Chris was Chief Strategist at Sberbank-CIB, Russia’s largest bank. He also writes extensively…
China continues to develop plans to implement its New Silk Road policy. Specifically, Beijing recently maneuvered to inject approximately $62bn USD into state-controlled “policy banks” in order to further development of the planned trade route. The strategy outlined by the Chinese government includes significant amounts of infrastructure development throughout the region, as well as already-implemented…
Russian President Vladimir Putin played host to an annual telethon and question-and-answer session earlier this week in Moscow. During the Q&A session, the Russian president stated that he expects Russia’s economy to reach growth levels seen before the current crisis within a period of two years. While likely to attract naysayers in the West, the…
The ruble has been on a relatively steady upward trajectory since the beginning of the year, and yesterday traded for the first time under the exchange rate of 50:1 on the dollar since last November. In total, the currency has regained 22% of its value. Most analysts point to rising oil benchmarks and Russian sovereign…
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