Year on year, Uzbekistan’s foreign trade turnover expanded by $11.75bn, or 21.5%, to $66.5bn in January-October, according to the state statistical agency.

The trade deficit amounted to $8.53bn.

Exports grew 27.8% y/y to $29.01bn, driven by stronger sales of gold, agricultural goods and services. Imports moved up 16.9% y/y to $37.53bn.

China remained Uzbekistan’s largest trading partner. It accounted for 19.7% of turnover. Trade with China rose to $13.11bn in 10M25 versus $10.24bn in 10M24 and $10.80bn in 10M23.

Russia was Uzbekistan's second-ranked trade partner. Trade volume with Russia was $10.60bn, up from $9.66bn in 10M24 and $7.93bn in 10M23. Turnover with third-ranked Kazakhstan totalled $3.93bn, rising from $3.42bn a year earlier. 

Other major trading partners included Turkey (3.7% of trade) and the Republic of Korea (2.2%).

Uzbekistan traded with 210 countries.

Goods made up 73.3% of total exports, with industrial goods accounting for 10.9%, food products and live animals 8.2%, chemicals and similar products 6.0% and various finished goods 4.9%.

The main export partners were Russia (12.6%), China (5.6%), Kazakhstan (4.1%), Afghanistan (4.1%), Turkey (3.2%), France (2.7%), the UAE (2.1%), the Kyrgyz Republic (1.7%), Tajikistan (1.6%) and Pakistan (1.1%). Together, these countries accounted for 38.8% of total exports.

Exports of fruit and vegetable products reached 1.82mn tonnes, representing a 7.3% y/y increase. In value terms, the sector generated $1.72bn, up 39.7% y/y. It accounted for 5.9% of total exports.

Textile exports declined 15.5% to $2.05bn, making up 7.1% of total exports. Finished textile goods accounted for 51.4% of the total, while yarn made up 28.5%.

Services exports totalled $7.75bn, representing a 32.8% y/y increase, accounting for 26.7% of total exports. The largest contributors were travel and tourism (53.1%), transport (30.9%), telecommunications, computer and information services (8.1%) and other business services (3.2%).

Gold exports hit a record $9.9bn, up from $6.6bn a year earlier. Gold accounted for 34.1% of total export earnings.

Natural gas exports were valued at $568.2mn, up 5% y/y.

The largest import categories were machinery and transport equipment (34.0%), industrial goods (15.8%) and chemicals and related products (12.3%).

Imports of goods increased by $4.45bn to $33.47bn, while services imports totalled $4.07bn, or 10.8% of total imports, up 32.2% from a year earlier.

The bulk of imports came from China (30.6%), Russia (18.5%), Kazakhstan (7.3%), Turkey (4.0%), the Republic of Korea (3.7%), Germany (2.5%) and India (2.5%).

Services imports were dominated by travel and tourism (51.3%), followed by transport (20.1%), telecommunications, computer and information services (10.9%), other business services (6.6%) and miscellaneous services (11.1%).

In January–September, foreign trade turnover reached $59.8bn on an increase of $11.14bn or 22.9% y/y.