The Central Bank set a new exchange rate for foreign currencies to the Uzbek soum from November 24. The US dollar to soum exchange rate at the end of trading on Wednesday increased by 15.95 soums - to a historical maximum of 12304.98. The previous record was on November 9 (12,297.01 soums).
In 2022, the soum lost 3.94%, while this year-to-date it depreciated by 9.4%. There was a sharp drop on August 10, when the dollar strengthened by 408 soums in a day, from 11,667 to 12,075 soums.
On August 22, the rate surpassed 12,100 soums, on September 25 - 12,200 soums. After that, the dollar was below 12,300 soums for almost two months.
The devaluation occurs against the backdrop of a decline in remittances and foreign exchange earnings from exports.
The governor of the Central Bank, Mamarizo Nurmuratov, noted at the end of July that the weakening of the national currency was also due to pressure from increased imports.
Later, the regulator tried to limit the outflow of currency by closing foreign exchange transactions on secondary accounts, but after a public outcry, the decision was canceled. Recently, the Central Bank presented a new project to strengthen control over the purchase of foreign currency by legal entities.
According to the Statistics Agency, over 10 months, Uzbekistan’s international trade topped $50.93 billion, which is 25.2% more than the same period last year. Exports increased by 29.1% - to $20.47 billion (excluding gold exports - $13.6 billion), and imports - to $30.5 billion (+22.7%). As a result, the balance of foreign trade turnover showed a negative balance of a record $10 billion (-$9 billion).
