War is good for business, goes the old saying This adage is applicable to more than just defense industries. Some of the longest running international conflicts – between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Israel and the Palestinians, Morocco and Algeria-backed separatist organization Polisario, and India and Pakistan, all share several common denominators despite different cultures, histories, geopolitical positions, and political and economic climates.

The EBRD predicted that growth in the South Caucasus and Central Asia in 2021 would be stronger than it initially expected, though it warned a slow pace of vaccinations left the recovery vulnerable to an autumn COVID-19 wave.

The Central Asian country expects to produce 85.3 million tonnes of oil in 2021 instead of 86 million tonnes forecast earlier.