Central Asia

Public debt of Republic of Kazakhstan has totaled KZT 1 trillion 330 billion on January 1, 2009, said Kazakh Finance Minister Bolat Zhamishev.

After the raid that was conducted by internal affairs bodies on auto roads in 2 regions of Uzbekistan 3.5 kilograms of drugs were confiscated.

A delegation of the Russian Gubkin Oil and Gas University led by the university rector, professor V.G.Martynov arrived in Ashgabat.

The Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev takes the working trip to Moscow to hold talks with his Russian colleague Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday. According to the president, the visit is expected to result into large investments in Kyrgyz economy.

Inflation in the Republic of Kazakhstan in January, 2009, totaled 0.3 %, the agency reports citing Statistics Agency of Kazakhstan.

Uzbekistan's gross domestic product grew by 9% year-on-year in 2008. The inflation rate made up 7.8% last year, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan said.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov received a letter from U.S. President Barack Obama who thanked the president of Turkmenistan for congratulations on his election as President of the United States.

"Deficit of the national budget 2008 amounted to 332.2 billion tenge within planned 359.5 billion tenge," Bolat Zhamishev, Kazakh Finance Minister said today at the sitting of the Ministry.

During the trading week of January 19-23 2009 Tashkent Stock Exchange (UzSE) registered 172 deals on the shares of 33 corporations. In total 739,952 shares were sold for the total amount of some 2.9 billion sums.

Kyrgyzstan will assign at least 1 billion soms for construction of social accommodation, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinov informed the republican meeting.