Almaty, 19 July 2011. The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) presents the first issue of The CIS Macromonitor, a quarterly macroeconomic review of the CIS countries.
“This new publication is intended to monitor, in a timely fashion, the economic situation and trends in the CIS, primarily in the Bank’s member states,” said Vladimir Yasinsky, Member of the EDB Executive Board and Managing Director of Research. “At the same time, Macromonitor will provide information to the expert community of the countries within the region and analytical support to the Bank’s investment and lending activities.”
The first issue focuses on the results of the first quarter and prospects before the end of 2011. The EDB analysts made a conclusion that, in the beginning of the year, the CIS economies continued to recover:
- in the first quarter, the region’s economy grew by 4.8%;
- net exports remained the growth driver in the economies exporting raw materials;
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migrants’ money transfers remained the growth driver in the economies exporting labour; and
- because of favourable situation in the global markets in commodities and raw materials, the state budget indicators improved to a certain extent.
In this context, the currency crisis that occurred in Belarus in April and May was a matter of concern. The main catalysts for this situation were significant public expenditures and a sharp increase in the money supply in 2010.
The EDB analysts also made a conclusion that the continuous advancement of the region’s economy is currently challenged by a number of serious risks:
- a slowdown in the global economy, China in particular, means a reduction in the demand for raw materials (the main exports from the CIS economies);
- the economic recovery of the region has not dissolved yet budget deficits and accumulated debts; and
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the growing world food prices and the excessive cash liquidity make inflation the main problem in the region.
The CIS Macromonitor includes two analytical inserts, Food Security in Central Asia and International Capital Flows in the CIS Countries. The electronic version of the publication is available at: https://eabr.org/analytics/
