Uzbekistan’s public debt as of July 1, 2023 topped $31.5 billion, or 36.8% of GDP. Of these, public external debt is $25.9 billion, public internal debt is $5.6 billion.

As of January 1, 2023, this figure was $29.2 billion. The share of public debt to GDP was 36.4%.

By country, the largest external debt is from China ($3.8 billion), Japan ($2.1 billion) and South Korea ($0.9 billion). In the context of international financial organizations, the largest amount of debt was attracted from the Asian Development Bank ($6.2 billion), the World Bank ($5.6 billion) and the Islamic Development Bank ($0.9 billion).

Reportedly in 2023, the total value of inked agreements to attract external debt on behalf and under Uzbekistan’s guarantee will be $4.5 billion, of which $2 million will be used to support the state budget (which is $500 billion less than last year), and $2.5 billion - to finance investment projects (which is $500 billion more than last year).

According to the Public Debt Law, the maximum amount of public debt in relation to GDP should not exceed 60%.

According to preliminary analysis, in an aim of ensuring stability of macroeconomic and fiscal figures in the medium term, the share of public debt to GDP is projected to be within 37% in 2024, 37.4% in 2025, 37.9% in 2026.

In order to keep public debt at a safe level and effectively management, the Ministry of Economy and Finance has envisaged the following measures in the medium term:

• follow up the practice of establishing annual ceilings on public debt;

• reducing currency risks by attracting borrowed funds in national currency. At the same time, set the maximum net volume of issue of government treasury bonds in 2024 at the level of 25 trillion soums;

• extension of the average maturity of public debt, as well as diversification sources of public debt;

• accelerating the process of broadly attracting international investors to the government treasury bond market;

• preventing, eliminating or reducing risks associated with servicing public debt;

• ensuring openness of information on public debt.

Limited amount of public external debt that must be received in 2024 is $5 billion. Of this, $2.5 billion will be used to support the state budget, $2.5 billion – to investment projects. It is planned to issue government securities worth 25 trillion soums on behalf of the Republic of Uzbekistan.