BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 11. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expects little change in Uzbekistan's inflation rate, despite the ongoing tight monetary policy, the bank says in its latest outlook, Trend reports.
As the ADB explains, this is because structural reforms in energy are causing administered prices to rise.
In January 2024, the year-on-year inflation rate slowed to 9.1 percent from 12.1 percent the previous year, mainly because the central bank kept its policy rate steady at 14 percent.
However, inflation is expected to stay at around 10 percent in 2024 and only decrease slightly to 9.5 percent in 2025. This reflects the delayed effects of energy price increases in October 2023 and the anticipated further increases in domestic energy prices in 2024 and 2025, the ADB explains.
To tackle inflation, commercial banks are likely to keep a check on credit growth by limiting microcredit and consumer lending, including auto loans, the bank analysts noted.
Additionally, the government plans to reduce energy subsidies, cut down on policy lending, and enhance the targeting of social protection payments, the ADB added. These measures aim to narrow the fiscal deficit to 4 percent of GDP in both 2024 and 2025.