Thursday, 25, April, 2024
Thursday, 25, April, 2024
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with the Republic of Uzbekistan. Despite shocks from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Uzbekistan's economy has shown resilience. The pandemic caused a sharp slowdown in 2020, particularly in trade, tourism, and transportation. Nonetheless, real growth remained positive at 1.9 percent. Year-end inflation fell to 11 percent.
The Anti-Corruption Agency has made adjustments to previously reported data on bribes in Uzbekistan. During a briefing at AIMC on June 20, the spokesman to the Anti-Corruption Agency, Durdona Ochilova, said that the maximum amount of a bribe in Uzbekistan stood at $2 million in 2021.
Trading in the Uzbek soum, Armenian dram and South African rand will be launched at the Moscow Exchange currency market as of June 27.
On June 20, Michael Cofield, Advisor to the US Department of Commerce's Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP), and Kevin Piccoli, Deputy Director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) visited the Uzbek Commodity Exchange (UzEx).
The German KfW Development Bank plans to зкўмшву up to 200 million euros for the renovation and construction of drinking water and sewage systems in Fergana province.
One of Austria’s largest banks, UniCredit, provided 7.9 million euros in a soft loan to Uzbekistan, Dunyo news agency said in a statement. The loan is intended to be used to equip agricultural enterprises with modern technologies of the Austrian company Bauer Gmbh for rain irrigation, the statement added.
The international rating agency S&P Global Ratings has confirmed the sovereign rating of Uzbekistan in foreign currency at BB- with a stable outlook, the agency said in a press release.
Entrepreneur Shukhrat Rakhmanov on May 18 reported on his Facebook group that recently U.S. banks began confiscating the cash of Uzbek legal entities paying for goods and services to Russian and Belarusian partners.
Last week, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a $15 million concessional credit for Uzbekistan. It will finance a five-year projectto support the Government’s efforts in restructuring and privatizing state-owned commercial banks, strengthening financial preparedness for natural disasters, establishing a development bank, and improving export and trade financing instruments for local enterprises.
Uzbekistan is contributing to international efforts to combat global warming by participating in the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) aimed at the reduction of methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030. It has become only the second country in Central Asia, a region known for high-intensity greenhouse gas emissions, to join the agreement.
The World Bank has released its new Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) report for Uzbekistan, which analyzes key challenges and opportunities for the country’s development. The SCD contains policy recommendations for removing barriers to private sector growth, reducing the state’s role in the economy, focusing on people and their human capital, and transitioning to a green economy. The report provides the foundation for selecting priority areas for the World Bank Group’s cooperation with the Government of Uzbekistan throughout the 2022-2026 period.
The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors discussed and endorsed the Uzbekistan Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for the period 2022-26. The CPF will guide the World Bank Group’s work for the next five years supporting the Government of Uzbekistan’s strategic priorities outlined in the National Development Strategy for 2022-26.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will continue to scale up private sector investment in Uzbekistan’s urban and renewable energy sectors, and extend its support into new areas such as education and health, ADB Vice-President for Private Sector Operations and Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) Ashok Lavasa told senior government officials during meetings in Tashkent.
As of May 1, Uzbekistan’s official foreign reserve stands at $35.9 billion, recording $745.3 million increase over the past month, the Central Bank said in a report.
The practice of soft lending is widespread in the Uzbek banking system, but the volume and share of soft loans is gradually declining, the Central Bank said in a report.
The Moscow Exchange plans to launch trading in three new currencies, one of them could be the Uzbek soum, sources told RBC.
Uzbekistan with UNDP support published its first impact report covering issuance of the first-ever public UZS-denominated sovereign bond. Uzbekistan Development Finance Bond Impact & Allocation Report describes how sovereign bond proceeds support sustainable development across a variety of sectors and how projects support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Uzbekistan has signed $ 575 million worth of deals with international organizations to support the state budget and implement for taxation, statistics, investment, rural SMEs support projects.
Uzbekistan has attracted significant credit resources from Russia in recent years. Mainly from the banks that are now under the sanctions list - Gazprombank, VTB, VEB and others. Given that these banks are supposed to finance major economic projects in the country, there are risks that Uzbekistan could lose this funding due to sanctions.
At a meeting on April 21, the Board of the Central Bank decided to keep the interest rate unchanged at 17%, the Bank said in a statement.