Ankara is discussing new contracts for gas supplies with a number of countries, including Russia, Turkish Deputy Energy Minister revealed on Tuesday.
“This year will be very difficult for all of us. But we are on good terms with our current suppliers, such as Azerbaijan and Russia. We are discussing new volumes of supplies, new contracts, because some contracts, for example, with [Russian state-run energy giant] Gazprom, expire at the end of the year,” Alparslan Bayraktar told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing Gastech international conference in Dubai.
He noted that potential supply contracts are being discussed with other gas-producing countries as well.
According to the official, Turkey expects to conclude a long-term agreement on gas transit with Russia in the near future.
Bayraktar added that Turkey is interested in liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries, but noted that with Russia, priority is given to pipeline gas.
According to the minister, by the end of 2021, annual gas consumption in Turkey is expected to reach 60 billion cubic meters, and projected to grow to about 70 billion cubic meters per year in the future.
Russian gas is mainly delivered to Turkey via the TurkStream pipeline running from Russkaya compressor station near Anapa in Russia’s Krasnodar Region, crossing the Black Sea to the receiving terminal at Kıyıköy. TurkStream replaced the South Stream project that was cancelled in 2014. According to recent data from Gazprom, natural gas deliveries from Russia to Turkey in the first half of 2021 jumped threefold to 14.623 billion cubic meters.
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The Russian government expects the country’s economy to grow by 4.2% this year, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced at a meeting on Tuesday.
“The recovery of the Russian economy after a rather difficult period is becoming more and more stable. By the end of this year, we expect GDP growth at 4.2%. This suggests that anti-crisis measures have proved their effectiveness,” Mishustin said.
Earlier, Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development published its own forecast, stating the same figure for Russia’s GDP in 2021 and predicting a further 3% growth in 2022. According to the head of the department, Maxim Reshetnikov, with the gradual withdrawal from the OPEC + oil output deal set for 2022, the country’s oil industry will be restored to pre-pandemic level and contribute to GDP growth.
Meanwhile, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also improved its outlook for Russia’s GDP growth in 2022 to 3.4%, which is 0.6% higher than its May estimates.
In its September report published on Tuesday, the OECD noted that Russia, as well as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey, saw “unexpected increases in inflation” that “will continue for some time.” However, it also stated that “tightening monetary conditions in many of these countries should nevertheless help curb domestic price pressures, especially by the second half of 2022.”
Russia has completely overcome the economic decline caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday during a meeting on economic issues.
“Based on the results of the seven months of this year, the gross domestic product has reached the pre-crisis level. The decline that was caused by the pandemic has been fully overcome,” the president said.
He pointed out that industrial growth in the country during the January-July period amounted to 4.4%.
At the same time manufacturing industries showed growth of 5.6%, Putin said.
“The volume of investments in fixed assets increased by 7.3% year-on-year in the first half of the year, which shows the positive mood of business and investors,” he added.
The president has set a task for the government to restore employment to the 2019 level by the end of 2021.
“What I want to say is that now, in the post-crisis phase, it is necessary to form a model of sustainable economic development, which could fully cover all the industries and regions of Russia… And, of course, economic growth is the key to successful implementation of state plans and projects, and achievement of national development goals,” Putin concluded.
The world’s largest vaccine producer, India, has announced that starting from October it will resume coronavirus vaccine exports to developing countries that have struggled to inoculate their populations.
The announcement comes after New Delhi, which had already exported 66 million doses to 95 countries, had temporarily halted vaccine shipments abroad in April amid a resurgence of cases at home.
According to Indian Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, the nation’s vaccine manufacturers “are expected to produce more than 300 million doses” in October for the country’s own vaccination drive, with any surplus supplies being sent to other countries in the global fight against coronavirus. “We will help the world, and through Covax we will also fulfil our responsibility,” the minister said.
Covax is a multilateral initiative which aims to provide access to Covid vaccines to all the countries of the world. It is led by the Global Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), the World Health Organization (WHO) and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
In June Covax, which expected to supply 1.9 billion doses for the entire year, cut its forecast partly because of the export ban in India. It now expects to distribute 1.4 billion shots by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, India wants to vaccinate its adult population by the end of this year. It has given more than 818 million doses of the three approved jabs since the beginning of the vaccination drive in January. So far, over 609 million people (more than half of India’s eligible population) have received at least one dose. Statistics show that 21% of eligible adults in the country are fully vaccinated.
