In January-February 2021, Uzbekistan's international trade topped USUS$ 4.5 billion, which is lower by US$ 1.4 billion, or 23.8%, compared to the same period in 2020, the Statistics Committee sai in a report.
As a result, the trade deficit rose to US$ 1.5 billion - 2.3 times more than in January-February last year, which is reportedly due to Uzbekistan's not selling gold for six months, including in February. For comparison: in the first two months of 2020, US$ 1 billion worth of gold was sold (of which in February - US$ 520 million), which accounted for 38% of all exports.
The trade figures were also affected by the decline in gas exports by 86.2% - from US$ 211.1 million to US$ 29.2 million.
Uzbekistan's exports, excluding gold, decreased by 8.1% - from US$ 1.62 billion to US$ 1.49 billion.
Industrial goods (39.1%), services (19.3%), food products (9.9%) and chemicals (9.1%) prevailed in the exports in January. The export of the latter increased by 6.4 times.
The main share in imports was still occupied by cars and transport equipment (29.7%), manufactured goods (18.6%), as well as chemicals and similar products (14.1%).
China in January retained its status as Uzbekistan's main trade partner, followed by Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey.
