8/1/16: Some CIS Currencies & Westremlin-ised Brains...

It is a common meme amongst 'Westremlin' analysts on social media to attribute the massive fall in Russian Ruble over the last 15 months to the economic policy failure of Moscow, ignoring two simple facts: oil prices and free floating regime for the Ruble.

How much this ignorance is not a bliss?

Source: BOFIT

Unless your brain has been so solidly 'Westremlin'-ised by some poli-sci department from U.S.ofA, neither Kazakhstan, nor Azerbaijan are run from Moscow... oh an Uzbekistan is producing only 83K bpd of crude, NGPL and other liquids combined (Russia - roughly 11,400K Kazakhstan 1,691K and Azerbaijan roughly 865K).

Arithmetic is simple: more oil produced, heavier devaluation. Excluding, of course, Turkmenistan, where reality never collides with daily life...

17/9/2014: Belarus v Ukraine: Income per Capita

Someone just asked me a question as to what is the relative income in Belarus vs Ukraine. Here is the data on GDP per capita basis (PPP-adjusted to reflect exchange rates and price levels differences) for main CIS countries (click to enlarge):

Note: as Ukraine is now a programme country for the IMF, forecasts end at 2014.

Sorted. Enjoy.

On related note, here are some other comparatives including Belarus and Ukraine: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2014/09/992014-russias-risks-are-up-but-still.html see table at the bottom of the post.

28/12/2013: CIS Free Trade Zone Expands

Uzbekistan officially joined the CIS Free Trade Zone, which now includes:

• Armenia
• Belarus
• Kazakhstan
• Moldova
• Russia
• Ukraine
• Uzbekistan

These cover 3.95% of total world GDP (adjusting for Purchasing Power Parity).

News post on the above here: http://en.ria.ru/business/20131228/186017027/Uzbekistan-Joins-CIS-Free-Trade-Zone.html

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are signatories, but are yet to ratify the treaty (0.04% of world GDP (PPP-adjusted).

For comparative: Germany accounts for 3.72% of world GDP (PPP-adjusted), Italy and Spain jointly account for 3.68%.