Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 27
By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has lowered the GDP growth forecast for Uzbekistan in 2017 by 0.2 percentage points to 6.8 percent, according to the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2017 Update posted on the bank’s website.
According to the bank’s forecast, the Uzbek economy will grow 7.3 percent in 2018. The forecast has been improved by 0.2 percentage points.
The bank’s specialists noted that GDP growth of Uzbekistan will be slightly weaker, as the economy is adjusting to the devaluation of the soum and the liberalization of monetary policy.
ADB experts added that these reforms will lead to GDP growth in 2018.
At the same time, ADB raised its forecast for inflation rate in Uzbekistan for 2017 from 9.5 percent to 11 percent and for 2018 - from 10 percent to 12 percent. The bank noted that the price increase in 2017 and in 2018 is due to the devaluation of the national currency exchange rate.
According to ADB, the current account balance in Uzbekistan will be 0.1 percent of GDP in 2017 (ADB’s April forecast is 0.2 percent of GDP) and 0.5 percent of GDP in 2018 (0.4 percent).
The report noted that Uzbekistan’s public debt is 15.1 percent of GDP.