Uzbekistan’s gold exports hit record high

Uzbekistan’s foreign trade volume, from January to October 2023, reached $50.93 billion, an increase of $10.26 billion, according to the Statistics Agency under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan data.

Gold exports rose to a record $6.87 billion, 1.6 times higher than last year.

“Exports rose 29.1% to $20.47 billion and imports to 30.5 billion. The external trade deficit exceeded $10 billion, more than last year’s figure ($9.01 billion). The gap has narrowed slightly thanks to the sharp increase in gold exports,” according to the Statistics Agency under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan data.

Uzbekistan exported gold over seven months for a record $6.87 billion, 2.3 times more than from January to October 2022 ($2.97 billion) and more than the minimum for the past six years, including figures for 2022 ($4.11 billion) and pandemic 2020 ($5.8 billion).

The precious metal accounts for 33.6% of Uzbekistan’s total exports.

In October alone, Uzbekistan exported $1.23 billion worth of gold. Despite this, the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves grew amid a sharp rise in gold prices.

The share of industrial goods in exports fell sharply from 23% to 16.5% amid a drop in its supply from $3.6 billion to $3.38 billion. The share of machinery and transportation equipment rose from 4.8% to 5.4%.

Exports excluding gold grew by only 5.6% to $13.6 billion. That is, if not for gold exports, the trade deficit would exceed $16.9 billion.