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By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London:
How is the Central Asia and Caucasus region for a change of financial scenery? Or simply for a credit-crisis getaway? Indeed, the region, which has been late in accessing the international finance scene, has remained mostly untouched by the crisis. Apart from Kazakhstan, which has been a more active player this side of the century.
Pascal Buschor, director at Ansher Group AG, told Opalesque from his Zurich offices that there are, all in all, 13 funds who invest in Central Asia and the Caucasus. However, the crisis, like the proverbial low tide, revealed that most of them had invested the majority of their funds in Kazakhstan, which stock market dropped around 75% last year. Ansher prides itself for investing in the whole region. The firm has one competitor who does the same and who is based in Russia.
One of their recent reports claims that countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus are continuing to grow steadily as the GDP growth rates of 12% for 2007, and 7.7% in 2008 clearly demonstrated. According to a recent study by IMF, the GDP growth of the region in 2009 is expected to equal 8.2%. However, these countries are very much dependent on exports of resources, and the current lower demand levels may have a knock-on effect.
Even if relatively unharmed by the global crisis, the region has seen less funds coming from foreign investors - although local investors are still active. Ansher’s investors are mainly Western...................... To view our full article Click here
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