Caucasus in August 2026: the most important developments in economy
In August 2026 the economic news from the Caucasus centred on Azerbaijan's trade and finance figures. Non-oil exports rose by more than 18 percent, and revenue from oil product exports more than doubled. OPEC published Azerbaijan's daily oil output for July, and capital expenditure on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline was reported 90 percent higher than a year earlier. The Central Bank set a new limit on electronic money transfers on 5 August and approved guidelines on market conduct for financial institutions. Moody's said higher capital requirements strengthen the solvency of Azerbaijani banks, and banks were reported to have earned significant gains from fast money transfer systems in June. A shareholder in the Absheron project left the Azerbaijani market.
A second line of news concerned transit and connections through Azerbaijan. Several Russian shipments of wheat, coal and barley crossed Azerbaijan to Armenia during the month, with another group reported on 22 August. Armenia's Nikol Pashinyan said Russian economic restrictions on Armenia could become a problem for the Eurasian Economic Union. On 12 August President Ilham Aliyev said preparations were underway for the TRIPP power transmission line, which would run through Armenia and link Azerbaijan's main grid with Nakhchivan, and on 23 August he said the Zangezur Corridor project was being actively implemented. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan completed a key stage of the Trans-Caspian digital link, Azerbaijan said it was ready to supply gas to Ukraine, and Armenia moved to restore a railway line toward Turkey. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that closing the Metsamor nuclear plant would increase Armenia's energy dependence.
Inside Armenia, inflation stayed above the desired level, with strong demand and wage growth cited as the reasons. Pashinyan visited an artificial intelligence factory, agricultural exports to Georgia continued to grow, and tax authorities discussed the regulation of crypto assets. In Georgia, a third blackout in two weeks was reported on 6 August, and the country sold nearly all of its blueberry crop to Russia. Georgia also delivered a fuel shipment to Abkhazia, where a key power plant failure caused a mass outage.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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