Uzbekistan's foreign trade grows to 26 billion US dollars

Uzbekistan's foreign trade turnover reached a total of USD 26.3 billion from January to April 2026. This corresponds to an increase of USD 1.44 billion or 5.8% compared to the previous year, according to data from the National Statistics Committee. Exports fell by 16.8% to USD 9.97 billion, while imports rose by 26.7% to USD 16.36 billion. As a result, the trade deficit widened to 6.38 billion US dollars. By comparison, the deficit in the same period in 2025 was USD 930.2 million and USD 3.58 billion in 2024. Excluding the export of non-monetary gold, however, goods exports rose by 28.7% year-on-year to USD 5.01 billion. Despite the overall weaker export figures, this indicates continued growth in the non-commodity sectors. China remains the most important trading partner China remained Uzbekistan's most important trading partner, accounting for 23.6% of the total trade volume. Bilateral trade with China totaled USD 6.23 billion in the first four months of 2026, compared to USD 4.17 billion in the previous year and USD 3.96 billion in 2024. Russia followed with a trade volume of USD 4.52 billion, after USD 3.79 billion in 2025 and USD 3.82 billion in 2024. Trade with Kazakhstan rose from USD 1.39 billion to USD 1.81 billion. Other important trading partners were Turkey with a share of 3.5% and Afghanistan with 2.8%. In total, Uzbekistan traded with more than 175 countries. Goods accounted for 65.3% of exports. These included industrial goods (15.0%), chemicals and related products (8.1%), various manufactured goods (7.9%) and food and live animals (7.5%). The most important export markets were Russia (14.5%), China (9.2%), Afghanistan (6.5%), France (5.0%), Kazakhstan (4.3%), Turkey (3.6%), the United Arab Emirates (2.7%), Kyrgyzstan (2.5%) and Tajikistan (2.1%). Together, these countries accounted for more than half of Uzbekistan's total exports. Gold exports collapse, textiles increase Exports of non-monetary gold fell significantly to 1.50 billion US dollars in the period from January to April, after reaching 5.48 billion US dollars in the previous year. As a result, the share of gold in total exports fell from 45.7% to 15.1%. Exports of fruit and vegetables amounted to 489,500 tons, up 5.6% on the previous year. The sector's export revenue rose by 9.5% to 454.5 million US dollars and accounted for 4.6% of total exports. Textile exports totaled 1 billion US dollars or 10.1% of total exports, which corresponds to an increase of 20.2% compared to the previous year. Finished textile products accounted for 50.5% of the export volume, yarns 32.5%. Exports of services rose by 32.6% to 3.46 billion US dollars and accounted for 34.7% of total exports. Travel and tourism services contributed 47.8%, transportation services 36.1%, telecommunications and IT services 10.1% and other business services 2.1%. Imports increase significantly In the energy sector, exports of mineral fuels and related products increased by 2.2% to 447.5 million US dollars. They thus accounted for 4.5% of total exports. Exports of oil and petroleum products amounted to USD 234.3 million, natural gas exports to USD 129.4 million and electricity exports to USD 82.8 million. Fuel imports increased by 25.8% to 1.44 billion US dollars and accounted for 8.8% of total imports. Imports of oil and petroleum products reached USD 821.5 million, including gasoline imports worth USD 327.1 million. Gas imports amounted to a total of 508.3 million US dollars. In total, Uzbekistan imported goods and services worth USD 16.36 billion in the reporting period - an increase of 26.7% compared to the previous year. The largest import categories were machinery and transportation equipment (33.7%), industrial goods (15.3%) and chemicals (12.4%). Imports of goods rose by 3.23 billion US dollars to 14.73 billion US dollars. Imports of services amounted to USD 1.63 billion, which corresponds to 10.0% of total imports and represents a year-on-year increase of 15.5%. The majority of imports came from China (32.4%), Russia (18.8%), Kazakhstan (8.5%), South Korea (3.8%), Turkey (3.4%), India (2.3%) and the United Arab Emirates (2.2%). The travel and tourism sector dominated imports of services with 46.4%, followed by transportation services (21.9%), telecommunications and IT services (11.3%) and other business services (9.6%). The post Uzbekistan's foreign trade grows to 26 billion US dollars appeared first on ostwirtschaft.de.