Uzbekistan's foreign trade turnover reached $41.01bn in January to June, with the outcome up 7.4% y/y, according to preliminary data released by the national statistical committee.

Exports declined 8.8% y/y to $15.86bn, while imports increased 21.0% y/y to $25.15bn, resulting in a trade deficit of $9.29bn. By comparison, the trade deficit was recorded as $3.38bn in 1H25 and $5.74bn in 1H24.

Excluding non-monetary gold, merchandise exports increased 28.7% y/y to $8.2bn in the first half, reflecting continued growth in non-gold shipments.

China remained Uzbekistan's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching $9.47bn, accounting for 23.1% of total foreign trade turnover. Trade with Russia totalled $7.01bn, followed by Kazakhstan at $2.78bn, Turkey at $1.40bn and Afghanistan at $1.08bn. 

Overall, Uzbekistan traded with more than 195 countries during the first six months of the year.

Goods accounted for 60.9% of total exports. Manufactured goods represented the largest share at 15.2%, followed by miscellaneous manufactured articles (8.6%), food and live animals (8.3%) and chemicals and related products (8.1%).

Russia remained the largest destination for Uzbek exports, receiving 14.9% of total shipments, ahead of China (9.0%), Afghanistan (6.1%), Kazakhstan (4.5%), France (4.5%), Hong Kong (3.4%), Turkey (3.3%), Kyrgyzstan (2.9%) and the UAE (2.2%). Together, these markets accounted for more than half of Uzbekistan's exports.

Exports of non-monetary gold totalled $1.50bn, down from $6.49bn a year earlier, cutting gold's share of total exports from 37.3% to 9.5%. No additional non-monetary gold exports were recorded in June, according to the cumulative trade data.

Fruit and vegetable exports totalled 1.09mn tonnes during the reporting period, up 0.8% y/y, while export earnings from this segment increased 3.0% to $872.9mn, accounting for 5.5% of total exports.

Textile exports rose 24.1% y/y to $1.6bn, representing 10.1% of Uzbekistan's total exports. Finished textile products accounted for 52.6% of textile exports, while yarn made up 31.1%.

Services exports continued to expand, increasing 35.7% to $6.20bn and accounting for 39.1% of total exports. Travel and tourism generated 52.9% of service export revenues, followed by transport services (31.6%), telecommunications, computer and information services (8.8%) and other business services (3.0%).

Exports of mineral fuels and related products increased 5.6% y/y from $732.0mn to $772.8mn, accounting for 4.9% of total exports. Petroleum and petroleum product exports rose 54.3% to $422.2mn, while electricity exports increased 13.4% to $116.2mn. Natural gas exports, however, declined 34.4% to $232.9mn.

On the import side, purchases of mineral fuels and related products increased 19.3% y/y from $1.87bn to $2.23bn, accounting for 8.9% of total imports. Petroleum and petroleum product imports rose 8.1% to $1.11bn, including $409.5mn worth of motor spirit (petrol), which surged 78.5% from a year earlier. Natural gas imports climbed 41.4% to $971.7mn, while electricity imports fell 15.6% to $55.1mn. Coal, coke and briquettes imports edged up 3.2% to $92.2mn. 

Total imports of goods and services reached $25.15bn, up 21.0% from a year earlier. Machinery and transport equipment remained the largest import category, accounting for 32.8% of total imports, followed by manufactured goods (14.8%) and chemicals and related products (12.1%).

Goods imports increased by $4.0bn y/y to $22.2bn, while service imports rose 12.3% to $3.0bn, representing 11.8% of total imports.

China supplied 32.0% of Uzbekistan's imports, ahead of Russia (18.5%) and Kazakhstan (8.2%). South Korea accounted for 3.6%, followed by Turkey (3.5%), Germany (2.1%) and India (2.0%).

Travel and tourism represented the largest component of service imports at 43.8%, followed by transport services (27.5%), other business services (10.0%) and telecommunications, computer and information services (9.0%).