Uzbekistan plans to catch up with Russia in OECD solvency rating

The government of Uzbekistan plans to improve its position in the classification of the degree of country credit risk in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). On February 28, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic Elyor Ganiyev declared about it. 

In February 2019, the organization announced the results of a meeting of its working group, according to which Uzbekistan rose from the 6th category to the 5th in international classification of solvency.

“Recognizing the systemic changes that have taken place in Uzbekistan over the past two years, the OECD has decided to raise the credit rating of Uzbekistan from the sixth to the fifth category. We believe that the country could get a higher rating, but everything has its time. I hope that next year Uzbekistan will be occupying the fourth place,” Mr. Ganiyev said at a meeting of the Uzbek-British Council on Trade and Industry in Tashkent.

Improving the country's position in the global risk classification will significantly reduce the amount of insurance liabilities on loans that Uzbekistan receives under the guarantee of export-credit agencies. For many years, Uzbekistan has sent official applications for transfer from the 6th group, but in vain.

The OECD annually analyzes quantitative and qualitative data from more than 200 countries of the world and subdivides them into seven categories according to the level of financial risks. The first group of countries is with the highest solvency, the seventh – with the lowest.

Among the CIS, Russia is in the 4th category, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan – 5th category and most other republics - 6-7th. In the 5th group, along with Uzbekistan, there are developing countries such as Brazil, Turkey, Serbia and Vietnam.