The International Monetary Fund delegation chaired by Ron van Rooden earlier this month met with Uzbekistan’s officials to discuss economic developments, prospects, and policy priorities. Ron van Rooden stated that Uzbekistan’s economy has continued to perform strongly this year, despite global price pressures and tightening global financial market conditions.
Contrary to expectations earlier this year, money transfers, including remittances, more than doubled. Together with continued fiscal support and resilient trade, this has supported economic activity and growth in Uzbekistan. As a result, Uzbekistan’s economy is projected to grow by almost 6% in 2022.
Thanks to the Central Bank of Uzbekistan’s (CBU) decisive and timely actions, inflation is expected to remain contained at about 12 percent by late 2022.
The report says that navigating the current uncertain environment will require increased vigilance. Failing to tackle inflation risks that it becomes entrenched, increasing the eventual cost of bringing inflation under control. Thus:
Monetary policy needs to remain firmly focused on reducing inflation. The current policy appears appropriate to contain price pressures and gradually bring inflation down to the CBU’s medium-term objective. Policy transmission remains constrained, however, by a low level of financial intermediation and high dollarization, and government lending programs at preferential interest rates. Monetary policy may need to be tightened if food and energy price pressures feed more broadly into core inflation to avoid inflation expectations becoming un-anchored. Preferential lending programs should be reduced further and replaced by interest rate subsidies for critical activities.
Fiscal policy will need to support the efforts to bring down inflation. The pace of fiscal consolidation was reduced this year to allow for a more than doubling of social assistance. Thus, the budget deficit is expected to reach 4 percent of GDP in 2022. The authorities rightly aim to reduce the deficit to 3 percent of GDP in 2023 and anchor confidence in fiscal sustainability. Lowering the deficit may prove challenging, given rising structural spending pressures and the desire to reduce taxes. Fiscal policy should continue to protect the most vulnerable through targeted support. Still, other spending may need to be curtailed further, given the risks to revenues from the reduction in the VAT rate and lower gold prices. Efforts to broaden the tax base by eliminating exemptions and improving compliance should continue. There remains scope to further strengthen public investment management and fiscal risk management, including by setting firm rules and limits for public-private partnerships.
Small and medium-sized enterprises—which will need to be the main source of new jobs for the rapidly growing labor force—will especially need to be able to grow and flourish. This will require:
Continuing with the privatization of state-owned enterprises and state-owned banks. The new privatization law will help ensure this is done through transparent and competitive processes. Meanwhile, it is crucial to continue to improve corporate governance and transparency in state-owned enterprises and state-owned banks.
Enhancing competition and creating a level playing field for businesses. This requires further opening up internal markets to entry by private firms and eliminating privileges for state-owned enterprises, as well as adopting the new competition law and ensuring the independence and adequate powers of the anti-monopoly committee.
Expanding digitalization of government services, including tax and customs administration. Besides making it easier for businesses to operate, this will also help reduce the scope of corruption. In addition, governance can be improved by strengthening beneficial ownership requirements, notably for large construction and infrastructure projects, to avoid capture by vested interests.
Improving factor markets, notably labor, land, energy, water, and finance, bolster productivity. The new labor code will help facilitate job creation, but improvements in education are urgently needed, especially in vocational and higher education, to address the large skill mismatches. Land reform should be accelerated, including in agriculture, to provide secure and tradable land rights. Energy and water tariffs will need to be raised gradually to cost recovery and then to market levels to increase efficiency and attract further investment, free up budget resources for more pressing spending needs, and help with the shift toward a greener economy. Raising tariffs should be accompanied by adequate support for vulnerable households. Efforts to reduce the large role of state-owned banks in the banking system and capital market reforms must continue to enhance financial intermediation and access to finance.
Increasing trade integration and regional cooperation. While the current geo-political environment poses ample challenges, it also offers opportunities for attracting businesses seeking relocation. Accelerating WTO accession negotiations and increased collaboration with neighboring countries, including improving and creating new transport routes, will help to make Uzbekistan an attractive investment destination.
As the authorities continue with sound macroeconomic policies and reforms, growth is expected to remain strong in the years ahead. The report says this would allow the authorities to reach their goal of Uzbekistan becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2030.
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