TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, September 3. Ministry of Economy and Finance of Uzbekistan has resumed publishing data on daily revenues and expenditures of the state budget, Trend reports.
State budget expenditures exceeded revenues by 2.3 times from January 1 to January 13 2023, which led to deficit of 5.5 trillion soums ($457 billion). This is more than a fifth of the entire deficit planned for 2023 and 17.4 times more than the figure for the same period in 2021. Ministry of Economy and Finance of Uzbekistan has suspended the publication of data on budget revenues and expenditures since mid-January, which have been disclosed since at least 2019.
State budget expenditures amounted to 3.25 trillion soums ($270 billion) as of August 28, which is 7 times more than its revenues - 456 billion soums ($38 billion). The sharp increase in spending may be related to the payment of pensions and benefits before the celebration of Independence Day.
If the government falls short of the spending limit again, this will lead to an increase in government spending by another $1.8 billion.
According to Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, Uzbekistan’s budget deficit is expected to grow to 5.1 percent by the end of the year. However, in case of cost optimization, it may drop to 4.3 percent next year and to 3.4 percent in 2025 (with a target of 3 percent).