Uzbekistan's trade in goods in January-August reached US$ 24.5 billion, a 12.7% decrease, or US$ 3.5 billion, compared to the same period last year, the State Statistics Committee said in a report.
The exports decreased by 4.1% to US$ 11.6 billion dollars, imports - to US$ 12.9 billion (19.1%). The trade deficit amounted to US$ 1.3 billion.
Uzbekistan's largest trade partner was China (16.4%), Russia (14.6%), Kazakhstan (7.2%), the Republic of Korea (5.9%), Turkey (5%), Kyrgyzstan (2.3 %) and Germany (2%).
The share of gold in Uzbekistan's exports reached 50% (in July it was 39.8%), bringing the country a record breaking US$ 5.8 billion. In August alone, the country exported US$ 2.5 billion worth of gold. In monetary terms, the share of gold sold in the first 8 months of the year increased by 47.2% or by US$ 1.86 billion compared to the same period last year.
Over the past five years, gold exports have grown several times. If in 2015 it was US$ 1.9 billion, then in 2019 it was US$ 4.9 billion.
Uzbekistan became the absolute leader in gold sales in July 2020, selling 11.6 tons, followed by Mongolia (6.1 tons). Insignificant volumes (0.5 tons each) were sold by Russia and Germany.
The gold was followed by industrial goods (15%, or US$ 4.4 billion), services (11.3%, or US$ 1.3 billion) and others.
The most share in the imports was occupied by machinery and transport equipment (37.8%), manufactured goods (17.1%), as well as chemicals and similar products (13.8%).
