Uzbekistan’s foreign trade turnover (FTT) reached $49.5bn in January to July, rising 8.1% y/y, according to data released by the national statistical committee.

Exports declined by 3.6% y/y to $19.93bn. Imports gained by 17.8% y/y to $29.60bn. The 7M26 trade deficit was recorded at $9.67bn.

Excluding non-monetary gold, merchandise exports increased 27.7% y/y to $9.8bn.

China remained Uzbekistan’s largest trading partner. Trade with the world's second largest economy amounted to $11.26bn, accounting for 22.7% of FTT. Trade with Russia ranked second largest at $8.13bn. Next were neighbouring Kazakhstan at $3.27bn, Turkey at $1.65bn and Afghanistan, another neighbour, at $1.23bn. 

Together, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Afghanistan accounted for 51.5% of Uzbekistan’s FTT, with shares of 22.7%, 16.4%, 6.6%, 3.3% and 2.5%, respectively.

Uzbekistan maintained trade relations with more than 200 countries during the reporting period.

Goods accounted for 63.2% of total exports. Manufactured goods represented the largest share at 14.4%, followed by miscellaneous manufactured articles (8.4%), chemicals and related products (7.8%) and food and live animals (7.7%).

Russia remained Uzbekistan’s largest export destination, receiving 14.2% of total exports, ahead of China (8.5%), Afghanistan (5.5%), Kazakhstan (4.4%), France (4.3%), Hong Kong (3.6%), Turkey (3.0%), Kyrgyzstan (2.9%), Tajikistan (2.2%) and the UAE (2.1%). Together, these markets accounted for more than half of Uzbekistan’s exports.

Exports of non-monetary gold totalled $2.80bn, down from $7.59bn a year earlier, reducing gold’s share of total exports to 14.1%.

Fruit and vegetable exports totalled 1.28mn tonnes during the reporting period, up 0.4% y/y, while export earnings in the segment reached $1.03bn, accounting for 5.1% of total exports.

Textile exports rose 26.6% y/y to $1.9bn, representing 9.5% of total exports.

Finished textile products accounted for 52.2% of textile exports, while yarn made up 31.4%.

Services exports continued to expand. They rose by 35.3% to $7.33bn, accounting for 36.8% of exports. Travel and tourism generated 53.8% of services export revenues, followed by transport services (31.7%), telecommunications, computer and information services (8.5%) and other business services (2.9%).

Exports of mineral fuels and related products increased 5.4% y/y to $931.5mn, accounting for 4.7% of total exports. Petroleum and petroleum product exports reached $515.9mn, while natural gas exports stood at $279.7mn and electricity exports at $134.0mn.

On the import side, purchases of mineral fuels and related products increased 10.7% y/y to $2.51bn, accounting for 8.5% of total imports. Petroleum and petroleum product imports reached $1.34bn, including $426.0mn worth of motor gasoline. Natural gas imports totalled $1.01bn, while electricity imports stood at $55.8mn.

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 $4.1bn y/y to $26.0bn, while service imports amounted to $3.6bn.

China supplied 32.3% of Uzbekistan’s imports, ahead of Russia (17.9%), Kazakhstan (8.1%), Turkey (3.5%), South Korea (3.5%), Turkmenistan (2.2%) and Germany (2.2%). Together, these countries accounted for more than 65% of total imports.

Travel and tourism represented the largest component of service imports at 43.6%, followed by transport services (27.4%), other business services (10.2%) and telecommunications, computer and information services (9.2%).