Uzbekistan’s total external debt as of October 1, 2021 stands at $ 37.6 billion, an increase of 11% over nine months, or by $ 3.7 billion, the Central Bank said in a statement. This is about 58% of the forecasted GDP in 2021 ($ 64.86 billion at an average exchange rate of 10,620.8 soums a dollar).

Total external debt includes government and government guaranteed (external public debt), as well as non-guaranteed external debt (private sector debt).

To to the beginning of the year, the public external debt increased by 7%, or $ 1.5 billion - to $ 22.9 billion, and the "private" external debt increased by 18%, or $ 2.2 billion - to $ 14.7 billion. dollars.

While, the public sector received loans totaling $ 2.5 billion, of which $ 635 million were issued securities at a rate of 3.9% with 10 years maturity and 2.5 trillion soums at a rate of 14% for a period of 3 years, which were placed on July 12th.

In 9 months, the "private" sector attracted $ 4.7 billion worth of borrowings. Of these borrowings, $ 2.2 billion falls to the banking sector, $ 1.1 billion - to the oil and gas and energy sector, $ 447.2 million - to the mining and metallurgical sector, and $ 1 billion - to other sectors of the economy.

During this period, UzAuto Motors attracted $ 300 million in loans from the international market at a rate of 4.85% for a period of 5 years, as well as Ipoteka Bank - 785 billion soums at a rate of 16% for a period of 3 years.

Since 2020, restrictions have been introduced on attracting foreign loans on behalf of Uzbekistan or under a government guarantee. The maximum volume for the total amount of newly signed agreements to attract external borrowing in 2021 was set at $ 5.5 billion. In 2021, this figure is planned to be reduced to $ 4.5 billion.

As a result, the growth of the national debt slightly slowed down (in 2018 - $ 2.4 billion, in 2019 - $ 5.9 billion, in 2020 - $ 5.5 billion, in 9 months of 2021 - $ 1.5 billion), while at the debt of the non-state sector started to grow at an accelerated rate (in 2018 - $ 1 billion, in 2019 - $ 1.6 billion, in 2020 - $ 3.7 billion, for 9 months of 2021 - $ 2.2 billion). It should be noted that the "private" sector is mainly represented by companies and banks with a state share (the state owns 82% of the banking sector), which are still subsidized by taxpayers in Uzbekistan.

In particular, in 2020, a subsidy for 400 billion soums was allocated from the Anti-Crisis Fund to Uzbekneftegaz company. The oil and gas and energy sectors account for 32% of the share in the structure of private external debt.