BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 11. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicts that Uzbekistan's current account deficit will grow, Trend reports.
As the bank analysts explain, this will be due to lower income coming in and more goods being brought in from other countries.
Thus, the deficit is expected to increase to about 5 percent of the country's GDP in both 2024 and 2025. This is because imports are rising, and money sent back from people working in Russia (remittances) is decreasing, the ADB noted.
At the same time, the bank added that the demand for imported things like consumer products, equipment, and transportation services is going up. As a result, imports are expected to increase more than the export of goods and services from Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, in January this year, Uzbekistan's state budget showed a deficit of 5.7 trillion soums ($454.8 million), followed by a deficit of 7.2 trillion soums ($574.5 million) in February. According to data from Uzbekistan's Ministry of Economy and Finance, the approved state budget for 2024 carries a deficit of 10.3 trillion soums ($821.8 million).