The Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction presented a review of economic growth trends in Uzbekistan in 2021. It also provides statistics on industrial production in the first half of this year.
It is noteworthy that in the first six months of the year, the production of petroleum products (its share in total industry – 2.6%) decreased by 32.1%. However, the reasons for this are not given.
According to the data, the production of vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers in the first half of the year (share – 7%) decreased by 17.3%. The sharpest decline in production occurred in the first quarter of the year. The decline during this period was 38%.
The statement attributed the decline in production to the suspension of the Asaka plant at UzAuto Motors from December 20, 2020 to February 1, 2021, as well as a shortage of semiconductor chips in the global market.
Among the products with high growth in industrial production, there were computers, electronic and optical products (81%), textiles (23.4%), clothing (17.3%), metallurgy (13%), construction materials (9.5%).
Production of basic pharmaceuticals and drugs decreased by 7.1%.
The volume of electricity production increased by 8.8% compared to the same period last year, while its consumption increased by 10.2%. At the same time, the volume of electricity supplied to the population increased by 7.3% and businesses by 11.4%.
The average monthly electricity consumption in January-June 2021 increased by 330 GWh (7%) compared to the previous 2020. Electricity imports amounted to 2.6 billion kWh, an increase of 10.9% over the same period last year.
Although the volume of natural gas production (26.2 billion cubic meters) increased by 3.6%, its total domestic consumption (21.6 billion cubic meters) grew at a faster pace – by 7.5%.
Additional demand for natural gas was met by 2.1 billion cubic meters of imports. In particular, the consumption of the population increased by 9.3%, thermal power plants – by 4.4%, JSC Uzkimyosanoat – by 8.6%, the Association Uzsanoatqurilishmateriallari – by 23.8%, AMMC – by 29.6%.
