Uzbekistan’s public debt as of April 1, 2021 decreased by US$ 133.7 million - to US$ 23.2 billion, or 40.1% to GDP, the Ministry of Finance said in a report.

Public external debt decreased by US$ 73.6 million (0.2% of the GDP) - to US$ 21 billion (36.3% of GDP). Of this, US$ 14.9 billion is raised on behalf of the government, and US$ 6.1 billion is guaranteed by Uzbekistan.

Public domestic debt also decreased by US$ 60.1 million (0.1% of GDP) - to US$ 2.2 billion (3.8% of GDP). Of this, more than 4 trillion soums (US$ 0.4 billion) are government securities, US$ 1.8 billion is domestic debt guaranteed by the state.

"The decrease in public debt by US$ 133.7 million is mainly due to payments on the principal of the public debt and changes in exchange rates in the public debt portfolio, despite the development of newly attracted borrowed funds," the Ministry of Finance said.

Specifically, in the first quarter of 2021:

• the balance of external debt raised on behalf of Uzbekistan decreased by US$ 126.2 million;
• the balance of external debt attracted under the guarantee of the state increased by US$ 52.6 million;
• the balance of domestic debt attracted under the guarantee of the state decreased by US$ 73.1 million;
• the balance of liabilities as a result of the issue of government securities increased by 135 billion soums.

“It should be noted that the decrease in the share of public debt to GDP is explained by increase in GDP as a result of real economic growth in Q1 of this year,” the ministry added.

In particular, in January-March 2021, the growth rate of real GDP was 3%.

In the first quarter, the Japanese yen became the currency with the greatest impact on the government debt. In particular, in January-March, the Japanese yen depreciated by 6.1% against the dollar (public external debt attracted in the Japanese yen makes up 11% of the loan portfolio).

• Debt distribution by sector
• Public external debt by sector of the economy at the end of 2020:
• Budget support - US$ 4.4 billion (as of January 1, it was US$ 3.7 billion);
• Electricity - US$ 2.9 billion (US$ 3 billion)
• Energy (oil & gas) - US$ 2.6 billion (US$ 2.6 billion)
• Transport and transport infrastructure - US$ 2.4 billion (US$ 2.4 billion);
• Agriculture and Water Resources - US$ 2.3 billion (US$ 2.2 billion);
• Housing and utilities - US$ 2 billion (US$ 2.3 billion);
• Commercial banks - US$ 1.3 billion;
• Education and Healthcare - US$ 0.7 billion (US$ 0.7 billion);
• Chemical industry - US$ 1.1 billion (US$ 1 billion);
• Telecommunications - US$ 0.2 billion (US$ 0.2 billion);
• Other industries - US$ 1.1 billion (US$ 1 billion);

Who lent

Public external debt by creditors as of April 1, 2021:

• Asian Development Bank - US$ 5 billion;
• World Bank - US$ 3.8 billion;
• State Development Bank of China and others - US$ 2 billion;
• Eximbank of China - US$ 2 billion;
• Japan International Cooperation Agency - US$ 1.9 billion;
• International investors - US$ 1.7 billion;
• The Economic Cooperation Development Fund and others - US$ 1.0 billion;
• Islamic Development Bank - US$ 0.9 billion;
• Japan Bank for International Cooperation and others - US$ 0.4 billion;
• Other international financial institutions - US$ 2.3 billion.

The Ministry of Finance believes that the sources of public external debt are sufficiently diversified. At the same time, 43.8% of this debt falls on foreign state financial institutions.

Debt currency structure

The foreign exchange structure of external debt (which is one of the indicators of the actual risk to the economy associated with changes in the exchange rate) looks like this:

• US dollar - 70.4%;
• Japanese yen - 11%;
• SDR (Special Drawing Rights) - 9.5%;
• Euro - 5%;
• Chinese yuan - 1.3%;
• Uzbek sum - 0.9%;
• South Korean won - 0.9%;
• Saudi rial - 0.7%;
• Kuwaiti dinar - 0.4%;
• UAE dirham - 0.02%.

Public debt service costs

At the end of the first quarter of 2021, the cost of servicing the state debt (at the expense of the state budget and state enterprises) amounted to US$ 516.1 billion.

Of these, US$ 300.3 million is the state external debt (US$ 200.1 million is payments on the principal debt, US$ 100.2 million is interest), as well as the state internal debt is US$ 215.8 million (US$ 177.3 million is the principal debt, US$ 38.5 million - interest).

The report also lists projects financed from external borrowings.

The survey does not show the level of private sector debt. According to the Central Bank, as of January 1, 2021, the share of the private sector in the country's total external debt is US$ 12.5 billion, but most of it falls on the banking, oil and gas and energy, telecommunications sectors, which are mostly represented by state-owned enterprises.