In 2023, the foreign trade turnover of Uzbekistan increased by 23.9% compared to 2022 and reached 62.5 billion dollars. Of this, $24.4 billion worth of trade was exports, and $38.1 billion was made up of imports. The relevant information was reported by the Statistics Agency.
Compared to 2022, the volume of exports increased by 23.8%, and the volume of imports by 24.0%.
The negative balance of foreign trade increased by 2.7 billion dollars and reached 13.7 billion dollars.
Dependence on China and Russia has increased
In 2023, China became the largest trading partner of Uzbekistan. During the reporting period, the volume of mutual trade reached $13.7 billion. This is 21.9% of the total foreign trade turnover of the republic.
Also, a significant part of the foreign trade turnover is registered with Russia (15.8%), Kazakhstan (7%), Turkey (5%) and South Korea (3.7%).
Last year, the combined share of China and Russia in foreign trade reached 37.7 percent. In comparison, the rate of dependence in these two countries has only increased over the past four years:
2020 – 33.2%;
2021 – 35.5%;
2022 – 36.4%.
It is noteworthy that the share of the countries bordering Uzbekistan (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan) in the total trade volume decreased from 8 billion 24 million dollars in 2022 to 8 billion 70 million dollars in 2023, or from 16.5% to 12.8%.
Top 10 countries with the highest share in the foreign trade turnover of Uzbekistan in 2023:
China – $13.7 billion;
Russia – $9.8 billion;
Kazakhstan – $4.4 billion;
Turkey – $3 billion;
Korea – $2.3 billion;
Turkmenistan – $1.1 billion;
Germany – $1 billion;
France – $984 million;
Kyrgyzstan – $953 million;
Afghanistan – $867 million.
Out of the 20 major partner countries in terms of foreign economic activity, only three countries – Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – have a positive foreign trade balance. A negative foreign trade balance with the remaining 17 countries has been maintained.
