The Central Bank presented latest data on Uzbekistan’s gold and foreign currency reserves, the Bank said in a report. As of January 1, 2020, the official reserves stood at US$ 29.1 billion. The international reserves - US$ 28.6 billion. Uzbekistan's reserves remain poorly diversified, with almost all of them shared between USD (US$ 12.4 billion) and gold (US$ 16.3 billion).
For the first time since the Central Bank began disclosing this information (fall of 2017), official reserves have surpassed US$ 29 billion, which is mainly due to the rise in gold prices, while gold volume almost the same as in October 2019 - 10.8 million troy ounces (31,1034,768 grams used by banks and jewelers). If converted to a ton, it would be 336 tons.
In the fall of 2019, it was announced that Uzbekistan had sufficient reserves to finance 13 months of imports. That's four times the recommended rate.
“We do not support the exchange rate of the soum, we are not trying to soften the fluctuations. Our presence in the market is not a monetary intervention but a compensation for buying gold,” explained the head of the Central Bank.
