BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 24
By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:
The Central Bank of Uzbekistan has revised its forecast of economic growth of the country for 2020, Trend reports citing the Bank.
The Central Bank believes Uzbekistan's GDP will grow by 1.5 - 2 percent this year. In spring, the regulator was more optimistic and projected growth of 1.5-2.5 percent.
However, the bank remains convinced that in 2021 the country will return to rapid growth and GDP will grow by six or seven percent.
The Central Bank believes that the demand for basic foodstuffs and medicines will remain high, while the demand for non-essential goods will decrease due to redistribution and optimization of public spending.
The Central Bank of Uzbekistan left the inflation forecast for the end of 2020 unchanged at 11-12.5 percent. The bank explained this by the emerging situation in the country's economy and uncertainty amid the continuing pandemic.
Earlier, Central Bank of Uzbekistan announced that official reserve assets of Uzbekistan as of July 1, 2020 amounted to $32.3 billion.
The country's reserves are still very poorly diversified - almost everything is stored in the form of monetary gold ($19.4 billion) and foreign currency ($12.4 billion). Uzbekistan plans to solve this problem by purchasing US Treasury bonds.
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