Central Asian growth: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised its growth forecast for Central Asia down from 3.5% to 3.3% for 2015 and from 4.5% to 4.2% for 2016, as the region’s economies come to terms with lower global commodity prices and the Russian recession.
The ADB’s Asian Development Outlook 2015 (ADO 2015), reports that the drop in oil and gas prices have hit the export revenues of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan and constrained economic growth. Lower remittances from their migrant workforces have also had a detrimental effect on consumption.
The bank is also forecasting higher inflation – up from 6.7% to 8.1% across the region – with the sharp depreciation of tenge predicted to drive inflation in Kazakhstan up from 6% to 8.9%.
ADB downgrades Central Asian growth forecast
Source: AKIpress