Baku, Azerbaijan, June 6
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
The World Bank revised Uzbekistan's economic growth outlook in 2018 from 5.6 percent, projected back in January, to 5 percent, World Bank Uzbekistan Country Office said.
The Bank's experts also lowered the forecast for GDP growth in Uzbekistan for 2019 from 6.3 percent to 5.1 percent.
The figures will exceed the average for the Europe and Central Asia region by 3.2 percent in 2018 and 3.1 percent in 2019.
The Global Economic Prospects report reads that Uzbekistan tightened its monetary and credit policy after the devaluation of the national currency (Uzbek soum) in September 2017.
However, structural reforms in the country, including exchange rate liberalization, tax reform, privatization of state enterprises and banking sector reform are expected to improve the prospects for long-term growth.
The International Monetary Fund earlier predicted a 5-percent GDP growth in Uzbekistan in 2018-2019.
In April 2018, the Asian Development Bank also lowered the forecast of Uzbekistan's GDP growth rate for 2018 to 5.5 percent from 6.8 percent in September 2017. The forecast for 2019 was has also been lowered from 7.3 percent to 5.6 percent.
In December 2017, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan predicted the rate of economic growth in the country for 2018-2019 at a level of 5.5-6 percent.
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