BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 22
By Fakhri Vakilov-Trend:
Uzbekistan increased export of gold by 2.6 times from January through September 2019, compared to the same period last year, Trend reports citing Uzbekistan’s State Statistics Committee.
According to the Committee, as of end of 3Q2019, Uzbekistan exported gold worth $ 3.9 billion. Moreover, the share of gold in the export structure amounted to 29 percent. From January through July 2019, Uzbekistan exported $ 3.4 billion worth of gold.
As follows from the official statistics, the main consumers of Uzbek gold are foreign countries.
In general, over the past five years, gold exports from the country have increased several times. In 2015, gold worth $823.9 million was exported, in 2016 - $738.2 million, in 2017 - $1.6 billion and in 2018 - $2.91 billion.
World Gold Council has recently published a list of the largest gold holders in September 2019. Uzbekistan took 17th place in the ranking of the number of foreign exchange reserves. The report says that the country stores 325.7 tons of gold, which is 56.2 percent of the country's total reserves.
Furthermore, in July, a presidential decree “On measures to further improve the geological study of the subsoil and the implementation of the State program for the development and reproduction of the mineral resource base for 2020–2021” was adopted. In accordance with the decree, the state program for the development and reproduction of the mineral resource base for 2020–2021 was approved.
According to the document, in Uzbekistan, gold and silver mining will be brought up to 150 tons annually in 2020, and up to 300 tons in 2021.
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