The Central Bank of Uzbekistan has established a new exchange rate for foreign currencies to the Uzbek soum from March 28.
Following the trading results, the US dollar exchange rate increased by 10.14 soums – to a historical maximum of 12,600.14 soums.
In commercial banks on Wednesday, the dollar was accepted at the rate of 12525-12570 soums (only at Turonbank). The selling rate varied from 12,590 (only at Hayot Bank) to 12,655 soums.
If at the end of 2022 the national currency depreciated by 3.94%, and in 2023 - by 9.7%, then from the beginning of 2024 the soum devalued by 2.1%, or by 261.37 soums.
Last year, the national currency weakened amid declining foreign exchange earnings from exports and remittances. Let us recall that in 2023, Uzbekistan’s foreign trade turnover reached $62.6 billion (+23.8%). Imports exceeded exports by $13.7 billion (+24.3%), and excluding gold exports – by $19 billion. In January-February, the volume of foreign trade reached $9.9 billion (+10.5%), exports increased by 13.6% due to the sale of gold - to $3.63 billion, and imports increased by 8.7% – to 6 .29 billion dollars. Thus, the negative trade balance amounted to $2.66 billion.
The volume of remittances after the abnormal year 2022 decreased from 16.9 billion to 11.4 billion dollars (-32.5%). In addition, over the past year, the balance of foreign currency deposits of legal entities in Uzbek banks decreased by 36% - from $5.5 billion to $3.5 billion. The decline in foreign currency deposits did not stop throughout the year.
All these factors lead to an increase in demand for foreign currency and devaluation of the soum.
Previously, the Ministry of Economy and Finance in the budget message for 2024 noted that the devaluation of the soum for every 100 soums leads to an increase in annual state budget expenditures by 400 billion soums.
