Uzbekistan’s public debt decreases in Q1 2021

The Ministry of Finance reported on public debt as of April 1, 2021.

At the beginning of last month, public debt amounted to $23.2 billion or 40.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) and decreased by $133.7 million compared to the beginning of the year.

Public debt indicators

During the reporting period, the country’s external debt amounted to $21 billion (36.3% of GDP) and decreased by $73.6 million compared to the beginning of the year.

Domestic debt amounted to $2.2 billion, or 3.8% of GDP, and decreased by $60.1 million in comparison with January 2021.

The decrease in public debt by $133.7 million is mainly due to the implementation of principal payments on debt and changes in exchange rates in the portfolio. In particular, in the first three months of this year:

• the volume of external debt attracted on behalf of the republic decreased by $126.2 million;
• the volume of state-guaranteed external debt increased by $52.6 million;
• the volume of domestic debt secured by the state decreased by $73.1 million;
• the volume of liabilities arising from the issuance of government securities increased by 135 billion soums.

In the first three months of 2021, the real GDP growth rate was 3%. The Japanese yen was the currency that had the biggest impact on the change in public debt. In particular, during the reporting period, the Japanese yen depreciated against the US dollar by 6.1%.