On a main thoroughfare in central Bishkek stands a rare type of building in Kyrgyzstan these days: a busy factory. Women hunched over long tables can be seen from the street working late into the evening in boxy rooms under the greenish glow of florescent lights.
Economic growth in Central Asia and the Caucasus will remain relatively sluggish for at least the next 18 months, according to a new report issued by the Asian Development Bank.
When shoppers in Turkmenistan went to the store this weekend, they were greeted by an unpleasant surprise: Bread prices had tripled and flour prices had doubled.
“These hills used to be covered with trees in Soviet times,” says Umedjon Baburforov, gesturing to the bare slopes around his village of Yanchob, near Dushanbe. “Now there are none.”
Kyrgyzstan is a fiscal train wreck waiting to happen. The Kyrgyz government is spending with abandon, even though it inherited an economy that was already in sorry shape. Foreign donors, meanwhile, are growing increasingly wary, as concerns mount about Bishkek’s reluctance to tackle transparency concerns.
Islamic banking is getting off to a slow start in Kyrgyzstan. But the country’s first brokerage agency following Islamic practices is changing the way Kyrgyz citizens – pious and secular alike – think about finance.
Officials in Tajikistan have resorted to price controls in an effort to halt a drastic increase in food costs. But inflation’s upward spiral shows no sign of slowing in the Central Asian nation.
Arriving in Kyrgyzstan from Istanbul seven years ago, Orhan Eker found a niche that needed filling. There were already several established Turkish kebab joints in Bishkek. But despite the relatively small market for Turkish food, he opened a now-popular café serving home-cooked favorites: spinach and rice dishes, salads, and chicken cooked in herbs that he imports from Turkey.
