Foreign assets of Uzbekistan up by $428 million in Q2

The foreign assets of Uzbekistan for the second quarter increased markedly, follows from the report of the Central Bank on the balance of payments.

The regulator estimated the total volume of reserve state assets as of July 1 at $35.58 billion. Over the quarter, they grew by $428 million, or 1.2%, despite their significant reduction in May.

The net investment position of the public sector reached $17.17 billion, an increase of more than $1 billion in six months. According to the Central Bank, the main part of the increase was due to non-operational changes in the structure of liabilities.

In particular, the gold reserve in monetary terms amounted to $21.2 billion. Despite the drop in stock prices of the precious metal from $1924 to $1810, in April-June, its total value rose by $337.5 million or 1.6%.

Since April, the Central Bank has moved from a seller of gold to an active buyer. The regulator became one of the biggest purchasers and in three months completely compensated for the sale at the beginning of the year.

Despite the absence of gold sales, the volume of foreign exchange assets also rose by 1% in the quarter. At the end of June, it reached $13.3 billion. At the same time, the amount of special drawing rights (SDR) decreased to $1.05 billion.

The foreign assets of the banking sector increased by more than 1.5 times and amounted to $4.51 billion. Their liabilities also showed a sharp increase – according to the results of the quarter, their amount exceeded $9 billion, with the main increase falling on debt instruments.

The total external assets of other sectors reached $34.44 billion, adding almost 8.5% in three months. The sum of all external assets amounted to $74.75 billion (+6.7%), and the investment position of Uzbekistan reached $18.46 billion (+8.2%).