Cantinetta Antinori restaurant offers elite wine to the clients, Moscow, June 15, 2006.
Photo: Sergey Mikheev
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Veritas Is Not In Vino
In terms of economy, CIS stepped up 6 percent from January to July of this year, according to Interstate Statistics Committee of CIS members. Even though the pace is just a bit slower than the growth of 5 percent to 8 percent achieved from 2001 to 2005, the difference becomes material if compared with the acceleration showed not only by China but even by the Baltic States.
Azerbaijan has been the growth leader for the second year running; its GDP increased 26.4 percent in 2005 and stepped up 35.1 percent from January to July of 2006. So, the aggregate growth of Azeri GDP fetched 88 percent from 2001 to 2005. Though stunning, the results couldn't be called surprising actually. The root cause of such acceleration was probably the launch of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
With its 5.9 percent growth, Russia is somewhere closer to the bottom of the CIS list and not only judging by the seven-month indicators but also by results of 2001 to 2005. In growth rates, it yields not only to oil producing Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan but even to Georgia with its ultra liberal policy in economy. But Russia wins in foreign trade, at least it is the only one that posted the surplus balance in foreign trade with CIS. The amount was $9.68 billion in the first half of 2006 and equaled $5.65 billion if taken for the whole past year.
The information about Georgia and Moldova looks most illustrative especially in the wake of Russia’s ban on the import of all wine and wine material from those countries. Despite the expected economic slump triggered by the ban, the effect of the latter wasn’t really drastic. Economies of Moldova and Georgia grew 6.2 percent and 8.4 percent in the first quarter of 2006. But the similarity ends there. The signs of decline could be easily spotted in Moldova; its industrial production shed 6.7 percent, cargo turnover lost 10.3 percent and exports dropped 19 percent. In Georgia, however, the exports soared 35 percent and the cargo turnover climbed 20 percent.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 04, 2006
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