Economic trends
The government's pro-active policy favors the diversification of its economy, the development of exports and investments which form part of the "Program of localization of manufacture of the finished products" encourages the production of consumption goods, aid in export, support to SME and and a program of service development. This program seems to be giving results. The credits granted to SME and private companies multiplied by 1.5 in the first nine months of 2010 in relation to the same period in 2009. The micro-credit has also multiplied by 1.6. The SMEs employ 74% of the active population.
Uzbekistan's GDP growth remained strong in 2010 (+8%). This is explained by the establishment of an "anti-crisis" program intended for commercial banks but also because these are not too dependent of the international financial system.
Uzbekistan faces a very high inflation rate (10.6%) in 2010, according to the IMF (the official rate is 4.2%), which is also in rise compared to the the previous year. Unemployment rate is high, even though the official rate is very low. Foreign debt is in constant increase and it reached USD 4.2 billion in 2010 (against USD 4.1 billion the year before).
The state of Uzbekistan has reaffirmed its will to reinforce the legislation on private property in order to contribute to the development of the private industrial sector. High corruption within the government and an extremely restrictive trade regime are among the factors that are slowing down the economy.
Main branches of industry
Services represent 47.1% of the GDP, industry contributes 32% and agriculture around 20.9% to the GDP. Industrial growth was +8.3% and agriculture increased +7.8% during 2010. The main agricultural productions are fruits and vegetables and livestock. Cotton, silk and wool are the basis of the country's large textile industry. Traditional crafts such as silk dying and carpet weaving, which had been placed aside during the Soviet rule, have restarted again since the country's independence.
Moreover, the country has plenty of natural resources: coal, zinc, copper, tungsten, uranium and silver. It also produced 73.1 tons of gold in 2009. Uzbekistan is also a significant producer of gas (64.4 billions of cubic meters in 2009) and oil (4.5 million tons in 2009). Machinery manufacturing, metallurgy, food-processing, chemical products manufacturing, fertilizers and construction materials are in high development.
International trade
The over-regulated trade policy, aimed at maintaining hard currency reserves, leaves little room for imports. To a large extent, Uzbekistan's foreign trade revenues depend on the international prices of gold and cotton. Therefore, the country is profiting from the record gold prices, which have been climbing since 2006. Uzbekistan is the third world's exporter of raw cotton.
The increase in imports is attributed to a very strict control policy, as well as very high tariff barriers. However, this should not hide the very real significant smuggling border trade. The country imports mainly machinery and equipment, chemical products, food products and ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
During 2010 the volume of exports increased 10.9% and the foreign trade balance of Uzbekistan increased to USD 3.6 billion.
The countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States contribute to about one third of the foreign trade. The main export partners of the country are: Ukraine (29.7%), followed by Russia (13.9%) and Kazakhstan (7.3%).
The share of Russia's imports into Uzbekistan amounts to 23.7%. Russia provides manufacturing products (equipment goods and arms).
China has become a more significant import partner for Uzbekistan (20.4% of its imports) and the amount of their trade reached almost USD 2 billion in 2010 against USD 1.2 billion in 2008. In third position is South Korea and its share of imports is 13.1%.
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Last updates: February 2012
