Average annual interest rates on national currency bank deposits dropped to 17.4% in April, marking the lowest level since February 2022 (17.7%), the Central Bank said in a report.

This represents a 0.7 percentage point decline from March and a drop of more than 2 percentage points compared to April last year.

The most significant year-on-year decline occurred in short-term deposits maturing within one year. Their average rate fell to 15% annually—down 1.3 points from March and 3.3 points lower than in April 2025. This matches a low last seen in December 2021.

For Uzbek sum deposits with maturities exceeding one year, the average rate stood at 18.1%, hitting a low not seen since December 2022. This represents a monthly drop of 0.8 points and an annual decrease of 1.8 points.

Yield compression affected all market segments. Annual interest rates on sum deposits for retail clients dipped to 19%, reflecting a 1.7 point decline over the year.

In the short-term retail segment, banks offered an average of 18.5% annually, down 2 points from March and 2.1 points from the previous year. Meanwhile, long-term retail deposit yields dropped to 20.1%, falling to their lowest point since April 2021.

Despite these nominal drops, real interest rates on deposits—adjusted for inflation expectations—remained high at 8.4%. This represents a minor 0.1 point dip from March, but a 1.9 point increase year-on-year.

For short-term corporate deposits, the average rate plunged by 3.7 points to 13.9%, falling below the 14% threshold for the first time since July 2023. Meanwhile, for corporate accounts with maturities exceeding one year, banks offered an average annual return of 15.6%, down 1.7 points from the previous year.

Adjusted for inflation expectations, the real yield on corporate deposits came in at 4.3%. This reflects a minor 0.1 point dip over the month and a modest 0.2 point increase year-on-year.

This monthly uptick was driven entirely by a surge in long-term foreign currency deposit yields, which climbed to 5.2%—a 1.3 point jump from March. Conversely, short-term foreign currency deposit rates softened to 2.2%, sliding 0.2 points over the month and 0.4 points over the year.

For retail clients, the average yield on foreign currency accounts ticked down slightly from March, settling at 4.9%.

Conversely, business foreign currency account rates saw a mild lift to 2.8% annually. This growth was primarily fueled by a sharp recovery in the long-term corporate segment, where yields jumped to 5.6%.