In January-March 2022, Uzbekistan's international trade reached $13.15 billion, which is by $5.6 billion more (or 74.8%) compared to the same period in 2021, the State Statistics Committee said in a report.
Of the total international trade, exports topped $5.7 billion (an increase of 138.7%, or by 2.4 times, to January-March 2021), while imports amounted to $7.4 billion (an increase of 44.6% ).
As a result, the trade deficit stood at $1.6 billion, which is more than a third less than in the first three months of 2021 ($2.7 billion).
To date, Uzbekistan has trade ties with 160 countries. In 3 months Uzbekistan’s top trade partners were China (16.6%), Russia (14.2%), Kazakhstan (7.5%), Turkey (5.9%), the Korea Republic (4.8%), Germany (2.9%) and Kyrgyzstan (1.7%).
In January-March 2022, the total number of exporting entities reached 3,658. This, reportedly, ensured that the volume of exports without gold reached $2.8 billion. Compared to the same period in 2021, this is an increase of 15.8%.
Meanwhile, gold makes up slightly more than half of the total exports - 51.5%, or $2.9 billion. In March gold exports were at $609 million, or 36% of the monthly volume. Sales of the precious metal slowed down noticeably, as indicated by the data of the Central Bank. Last year, Uzbekistan did not sell gold in the first three months.
Industrial goods in the structure of exports accounted for 19% ($1.09 billion), food products and live animals - 4.9% ($281.8 million), chemicals and similar products - 4.3% ($246 million).
Exports of industrial goods increased by 19.9% in the first three months of 2021, metal products - by 85%, non-metallic products - by 30%, yarn and fabrics - by 20.8%. Food exports added 23% compared to January-March last year, chemical products - 7.6%. Car exports have more than halved.
Services in the structure of exports accounted for 9.8%, bringing Uzbekistan 567.7 million dollars, which is 20.9% more than last year's figure for the same period.
