The following article was contributed by the Embassy of Uzbekistan. - Ed.



Despite the ongoing pandemic, the economy of Uzbekistan has reached record growth rates. According to the State Statistics Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the gross domestic product for the first six months of this year increased by 6.2 percent. For comparison: Over the same period last year, due to the pandemic and lockdowns, the economy grew by only 1.1 percent, and in the first three months of 2021 -- 3 percent.

In Uzbekistan, inflation in the consumer sector continues to slow, despite serious increases in the prices for certain commodities such as carrots and vegetable oil. In the first six months of the year, prices increased by 4.4 percent while in 2020 over the same period -- by 4.6 percent. The largest increase in prices is noted for food products -- by 5.7 percent (in the first half of 2020 -- 6.2 percent). The rise in prices for nonfood products is also slowing down -- 3 percent against 3.6 percent in January-June 2020.

The inflow of investment in the first quarter of this year has shown positive dynamics. Investment in fixed assets rose by 5.9 percent against a decline of almost 10 percent in the same period last year. Investments from the budget decreased by 8.5 percent. Investments and loans under the guarantee of the government decreased by more than 36 percent, and their share in the total volume of investments fell to 8.9 percent. The inflow of investments from noncentralized sources has noticeably increased -- by 14.9 percent.

All sectors of the economy have shown positive movements, with the main drivers being the industrial and service sector.



The industrial sector in January-June demonstrated high growth rates -- 8.5 percent against a decline of 0.3 percent over the same period last year. The mining industry grew by 7.5 percent (a decline of 18 percent in January-June 2020), the manufacturing industry by 8.6 percent (4.9 percent), and electricity, gas and air conditioning by 12.1 percent (8.4 percent).

The service sector, such as tourism, catering and accommodation, saw even more impressive growth -- an increase of 18.3 percent in the first half of the year versus an increase of 2.6 percent in January-June 2020. The transport sector is actively recovering after last year’s decline: Freight turnover increased by 14.1 percent, passenger turnover by 4.1 percent. Retail trade in the period under review increased by 9 percent.

A slowdown relative to last year is noted in agriculture, to 1.8 percent versus 2.8 percent, which is due to difficult weather conditions this year and a lack of water. The growth rates of the construction sector also slowed down to 0.1 percent against 7.1 percent in the first half of 2020.

Foreign trade also managed to overcome the recession. In the first half of this year, sales grew 13.6 percent to $18 billion. In the same period last year, there was a significant decline of 18 percent. During the period under review, exports grew by 12 percent to $7.1 billion and imports by 14.4 percent to $11 billion. In the second quarter, Uzbekistan sold gold abroad against the background of positive price conditions on the world market. However, it should be noted that in the first six months the volume of exports without gold increased by 36.4 percent and reached $5.7 billion.

Among exports, the volume of food supplies to foreign countries increased by 6.3 percent, chemicals by 18.6 percent, industrial products by 74.4 percent (mainly textiles, nonferrous metals), machinery and transport equipment doubled.

At the same time, imports of food products increased by 46.2 percent, industrial products by 29.1 percent (mainly metallurgical products), chemical products by 17 percent.

Thus, the results of the first half of the year show the economy of Uzbekistan is actively overcoming the consequences of the crisis and reaching pre-pandemic levels.